I Am Now an e-Patient

August 3rd, 2012 by Greg Foster

Am I blessed or what? I’m the CEO of a start-up bent on revolutionizing the way in which health care marketers engage, attract and retain patients, and I get diagnosed with a brain tumor… ok, ok, I know – how can that be a blessing? Well, aside from the pain-in-the-rear factor associated with managing cancer, this experience has now thrust me into the role of e-patient Greg (think e-patient Dave). Before cancer, I could certainly explain to our great clients why they needed to avail themselves of the only HIPAA compliant Facebook Ads API partner with the most sophisticated and effective social patient acquisition tool set on the planet, but those words sprung from my scientific marketing background. After brain surgery and 6 weeks of radiation in a hospital, and after having chosen all specialists through the very process BrightWhistle’s platform is designed to optimize and manage, I can literally look at a healthcare marketer and say “I know how patients are acquired because I was acquired”.

So… I will be posting some “letters from the other side” very soon, discussing various phases of the patient acquisition process and why employing BrightWhistle is the only way for a health care marketer to fully address the rapid shift in the patient’s decision path.

More to come…

Greg Foster

Lauren – if there is anything I have learned during my tenure in cancer treatment it’s the invaluable support and love you all provide for those teens who fall in the gaps. Indeed, I have witnessed some courageous teens who have taken so much time to be with smaller children while receiving very little support of their own. You all keep doing what you do and know that you will always have a partner in BrightWhistle in helping to continuing Melissa’s Living Legacy!
Lauren Spiker

Hi Greg,
First, thank you for all BrightWhistle is doing to help us raise awareness of adolescent cancer. Thanks to you and your team, many thousands of people now know of our cause! Funny, isn’t it, how life takes us down paths we’d never journey on our own but which somehow take us where we’re supposed to be? Sending wishes for a full return to good health and continued success from everyone at Melissa’s Living Legacy Teen Cancer Foundation and the Teens Living with Cancer program. May each day be a new beginning!
Debbieward1976

GREG,
THE WORD GUITAR SHOULD HAVE BEEN QUIT, BECAUSE I DID QUIT A VERY WELL PAYING JOB TO SIT AMONGST DEATH DAILY. I WILL ADMIT MY FAITH GREW BY LEAPS AND I BECAME A FERVENT PRAYER WARRIOR. I HATED MAMA’S ORDEAL, BUT I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES AND STILL HEALS AND PERFORMS MIRACLES. I ADMONISH YOU TO FIND A GREAT CHURCH THAT PREACHES THE WORD OF GOD AND BELIEVES GOD STILL DOES MIRACLES. I WILL ADD YOU TO MY PRAYER LIST. GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE. HALELUJAH.
Debbieward1976

Interested in any marketing availability.
DEBBIE WARD, RPH.
debbieward1976@gmail.com. OR TEXT
912-601-7306.
GOD BLESS.
RESPECTFULLY,
Debbie Ward, RPH
PS.. went through mama’s horrendous treatment for stage 4 AMLeukemia. Platelets were 9,000 at moment of diagnosis. I guitar work, cashed in my last bit of retirement, and was her caretaker and advocate. Many mistakes were made during her 7months of treatment, such as falling off toilet and giving wrong bloodtype. I cannot imagine how bad thingscould have gone if I had not been there day in and day out. AND , YES, I PITCHED QUITE A FEW FITS AND ASKED SOME MEDICAL PERSONNEL NOT TO EVER TOUCH HER AGAIN. I know the Lord healed her and September 26th will be her tenth anniversary. She will be79 in November, and keeps on going. She is such an inspiration to so many. To sum it up……
I understand the need for all the information a patient and/or caregivers can obtain. TO QUOTE THE OLD TESTAMENT….”MY PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.”(paraphrase was all mine.)
GOD BLESS YOU IN YOU HEALTH, TREATMENT, AND FUTURE ENDEAVORS.
Greg Foster

Dave – it’s an honor to see your post on our blog. You and I actually met at HiMSS this year as we spent a great deal of time with our partner, MedSeek. Thank you for engaging in this conversation and thank you for your leadership in really pioneering the patient engagement movement. Hope to see you in person soon.
Greg Foster

Thank you for engaging, Kathi. I look forward to laying out my experience and how it will shape our continuing efforts at BrightWhistle to build an ideal solution for health care providers seeking to leverage real engagement to attract and retain patients.
http://twitter.com/kgapo Kathi Apostolidis

Hi Greg,
I was driven to your post via Lionel Reichardt’s ScoopIt http://bit.ly/MluTFI that is to say that I did not know you or BrightWhistle before. I wish you all the best for your health as you walk on a difficult path..
You say that your experience with cancer has changed your perspective. Personally, from a very quick view on BrightWhistle, I don’t see how it can help patients to learn about their specific condition, connect them with other patients to exchange information and to find and choose the expert doctors for their particular disease, therapies and best hospitals, but I suppose this is done only through those HCPs who have contracted the services of BrightWhistle….
You had to learn the hard way what it means to be a patient with a critical disease, how important it is to find very quickly the right information and if I can foresee correctly, your bitterly gained insights will lead you to make important modifications to BrightWhistle to make it valuable to patients too.
Take good care of yourself now….
http://twitter.com/kgapo Kathi Apostolidis

deleted
http://twitter.com/ePatientDave Dave deBronkart

Well, Greg, good to meet you, I suppose … as I say in all my talks, “patient is not a third person word … your time will come.” In a way I’m glad it’s hitting you at a time when you have the awareness of the issues and the overall health to deal proactively, making the best of it, whatever that means for you.

I’m particularly interested in hearing how your view shifts, now that you yourself are on the firing line. Many people say “Well, we’re all patients someday,” but time after time I hear “Woah, when I BECAME a patient, with my a$$ on the line, suddenly it looked different.” If that happens to you, and if you can articulate how, it’ll be valuable both to the patient engagement movement and, I imagine, to Brightwhistle.

Best of luck, and keep in touch.

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