Has it really been over two years since I first met ePatient Dave, Susannah Fox and Regina Holliday in Washington DC and I wrote about the joy of connecting with others outside the medical library field Of Impact, Information and Ideas?

Yours truly and ePatient Dave

His reaction when he recognized me across the room was almost the same as it was then, and it was a pleasure to meet Sherry Reynolds (@Cascadia on Twitter) and Peggy Zuckerman from the Society for Participatory Medicine.

I was thrilled that the Puget Sound Health Alliance brought Dave out to Seattle yesterday to address these points during his talk about empowering patients:

• What challenges do empowered patients face in today’s health care system?
• What does it mean to take an active role in your health care?
• What role does power play in health care?

In the interest in getting this up ASAP my Evernote page of notes and pictures from his talk will be an edited work in progress but a few obvious and not so obvious highlights to shout out now and cover in more detail later.

• Another report from the OpenNotes Project will be out soon!
• Look for Escape Fire out on October 5th, described by Dave as An Inconvenient Truth of American healthcare.
• Keep an eye out for how to participate in ‘The Role of the Patient’ as one of the 20 TEDMED 2013 Great Challenges

He didn’t mention this at all (and should have done a live singalong!) but Dave’s performance in Gimme My DaM Data is a must see.