MY SERVICES
If you’re planning to apply for college, graduate school, or for training in the health professions, many of the students with whom I have worked say knowing me has helped them find the right college or university and succeed once they got there. I’ve found, and collected, hundreds of pointers to resources on the web that may help you in your search and application processes.
I speak on a variety of topics: I enjoy motivating people to build better and strong er communities while helping them see that its totally okay to ask for—and give—help to others. I also speak on the educational search process; on how managing bias in our healthcare system can improve outcomes for people with chronic health needs; on the importance of strengthening how we train health professions students about how patients manage (and yes, often struggle to manage) their health outside the clinical setting; and on the challenges our society faces in managing many kinds of controversial science.
A Harvard Medical School study shows people with disabilities die far more often from cancer and other treatable conditions than those who access healthcare easily. Data from the same senior faculty member says 82.4 percent of physicians think America’s 56 million people with US census defined “significant” disabilities have far lower qualities of life than their non-disabled peers. Unfortunately, in my experience, those negative attitudes, and limited awareness on the part of the healthcare system and health professionals alike, on how to help people with chronic health concerns (including disabilities) access care and manage our health concerns at home and work, often increase suffering, add to costs, and lead to unnecessarily poor outcomes for millions. As we spend more than 86% of our healthcare budget on chronic medical concerns; 80+% of physician appointments on managing chronic illness; and 99% of our time making decisions on our health outside the clinic, these training issues, attitudes, and barriers to access are major issues for the US.
My life experience and research as well as the academic literature say our healthcare system and health professionals are often not prepared to help patients, caregivers, and society achieve optimal outcomes. I’ve encountered good and bad systems and staff. Proper infrastructure and training can cost-effectively improve outcomes and experiences while reducing costs and conflicts. I consult and speak on these problems and have ways to ameliorate them.