Motivating change through online patient sharing

Motivating change through online patient sharing By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD MSPH Humans evolved as storytellers. Experiences of the weather, nature, life, and the world have been explained through legends and myths. Sharing stories continues to build and maintain community. As Marie Ennis O’Connor, Irish breast cancer survivor, blogger and marketing consultant states, patients’ stories are authentic and genuine “windows into the lived experience,”1 or as linguists would argue, their stories are rich sources of “real world evidence.” Breast cancer patients have been sharing their stories online for many years now. On July 4, 2011, the #BCSM (for [...]