More on Empathy and Effective Leadership

See my latest column on the relationship between empathy and effective leadership in the October, 2012 issue of MPNforum.

http://mpnforum.com/the-empowered-patient-oct-2012/

Empathy and Leadership

Strategy #6 for Empowerment - Connect with Others

See the 1 year anniversary issue of MPNforum for my latest The Empowered Patient column: http://mpnforum.com/the-empowered-patient-connect-with-others/

MPNforum is an online magazine that features news, interviews and stories on topics of interest to people with Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. My contribution to the May, 2012 issue focuses on the benefits of connecting with others through online magazines, support pages and listserves. Experiencing and expressing empathy are among the most valuable aspects of contributing to and participating in these online resources and sites.

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.

Another MPD support list

To correct an oversight, I have added a link to the archives of another fabulous myeloprofliferative disorders (MPD) online support listserve, the MPD-NET list, which is supported by ACOR, the Association of Cancer Online Resources. This list has been another wonderful source of information, advice and support for me.

The link to the list archives and information about joining the list is: http://listserv.acor.org/archives/mpd-net.html

Michael