Richard Davies deBronkart Jr (born February 18, 1950), widely known as e-Patient Dave, is a cancer patient and blogger who, in 2009, became a noted activist for healthcare transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights.
In January 2007, a routine shoulder x-ray incidentally disclosed a shadow in the lung, which turned out to be metastasized kidney cancer (stage IV, grade 4 renal cell carcinoma).
[1][2][3][4] His kidney was removed laparoscopically and he was treated in a clinical trial of high-dose interleukin-2 (HDIL-2), ending 7/23/07, which was effective in reducing the cancer, although his femur ultimately broke from damage caused by the disease.
In January 2008 he learned of the so-called "e-Patient White Paper" by Dr. Thomas William Ferguson, which described how patients are using the Internet to participate actively in their care.
In February 2009, Ferguson's e-Patient Scholars Working Group elected him founding co-chair (with his physician, Dr. Danny Sands) of the Society for Participatory Medicine.
Referring to the 2009 ARRA economic stimulus package, the Globe said: Within days the hospital announced it would no longer use billing data as a proxy for clinically valid information.
[10] The following week deBronkart, Google, and the hospital were scheduled to speak at a major industry conference "Health 2.0 Meets Ix,"[11] and the PHR story became one of the main topics.
Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig:[25] How an empowered patient beat Stage IV cancer (and what healthcare can learn from it), published in 2010 by Changing Outlook Press.
After a career in high tech marketing outside Boston, these events led to healthcare transformation and policy issues taking an increasingly large part of his time.