South African Association of Hospital and Institutional Pharmacists - e-Patient Story

Editor's Notes

1. Before I begin explaining more about what an e-Patient is, I’m going to be sending around a jacket which was painted by an artist called Regina Holliday. This photo was taken at a digital health event called health 2.0 and all these people you see in it are either an e-Patient or an e-Caregiver like myself. The movement is called the walking gallery of health and there are over 400 jackets around the world. The purpose of the Walking Gallery is to promote the sharing of patient stories at events like these to promote patient-centered innovation. My jacket has a painting of my story and Regina called it “reconciliation”.
2. I was 25 years old when I had my car accident. I’d just started an advertising company and completed my studies in fine art and graphic design.
3. Once my surgeries were complete, something really bothered me about not being able to find those doctors and the information I needed in the first place. So using my professional skills I started to advocate online. I started with a Facebook page first, then a blog, then a Twitter page. I also started offering a service to doctors to design medical websites and social media pages. Because they didn’t have an online presence it was making it difficult for me to find them. But I could find doctors overseas because they had websites.