Two Great Links

I have added two new links that I highly recommend:

• Shared Health Data - a blog and more, written by my friend and colleague, Susan Woods, MD, MPH,  a primary care clinician, researcher and e-health advocate at the Portland, Oregon Veterans Adminstration Medical Center and Oregon Health Sciences University. I referred to Shared Health Data in my previous post about Personal Health Records. Sue describes her blog as follows, "This is a blog about better health and healthcare through exchange of health information, greater transparency and proactive engagement of consumers." It is all that and more. Check out her most recent column which celebrates Steve Jobs's contributions to the transformation of computing into consumer-friendly and empowering applications. She also imagines what Steve Jobs might have created if he worked in healthcare. Click on the link in my favorite sites list or go to http://www.sharedhealthdata.com/
• Mind the Gap - written by Stephen Wilkins, MPH, a former hospital executive and consumer health behavior researcher who became inspired to focus on patient empowerment as a caregiver for his wife during her successful, and traumatic, experience with cancer.  Mind the Gap offers, "evidence-based insights and best practices for improving patient engagement and the quality of communications between patients and their doctors". Stephen's latest post is entitled, "3 Reasons for Becoming More Patient-Centered". Check out the blog at: http://healthecommunications.wordpress.com/ . It is also on my favorites list.