As the year 2017 is coming to a close and a new year is approaching I find myself thinking about what has passed and what’s to come.

  Each month I receive an online newsletter from “Cancer.Net”.  The newsletter provides approved information to help patients and families make informed healthcare decisions. A recent issue titled “What is Tumor Board?” catapulted me back in time.

  A colleague recently forwarded a New York Times article, “The Appointment Ends. Now The Patient is Listening.” The author Paula Span notes new efforts to help patients understand their health status by recording appointments. 

  The title of one of my previous blogs in and of itself posed an important question: “What Is A Good Patient?” How one defines a “good patient” varies, as does their reason for wanting to be one. During my tenure as a Medical Humanist at Southwestern Vermont’s Regional Cancer Center I witnessed the difficult […]

“We need to raise our voices a little more, even as they say to us, ‘This is so uncharacteristic of you.’ Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone.” MitsuyYamada After each of our SpeakSooner community education programs I would ask myself, “How did this program differ from the one before? And, what was the […]