Article: Health Care Hackers

This was in my inbox this morning, and I thought it very fitting to this group. If anyone knows the importance of peer-to-peer support, it's this community! :)

http://e-patients.net/archives/2012/07/health-care-hackers.html

An excerpt from "Health Care Hackers" by Susannah Fox (click link above to read full article):

I am always looking for what Tim O’Reilly calls “alpha geeks” – people who are forging new paths that others will follow. His alpha geeks are computer hackers, people who create new tools and work-arounds with software and hardware.

I found my alpha geeks among people living with rare disease because you are health care hackers. You have been forced to navigate the maze of health care in new and interesting ways, creating tools, and making connections.

You all know instinctively what most people had to learn: on the internet, the expression of your spirit has nothing to do with the expression on your face.

After spending time looking at patterns in your communities, I looked for similar patterns in the general population. They are there. Other people are behind you on the path, but they’re on the same path. And it’s a path leading to what I call peer-to-peer health care.