Sometimes the best way to accomplish the most is to get good heads together for conversation, brainstorming and more.  Some of those names we hear over and over again in the patient safety world were able to join forces at a picnic in Aiken, South Carolina, on July 4th.

Organized by Dianne Parker, the group was able to discuss safety initiatives and ideas, and remember those who have been lost due to medical errors.

The goal?  To make this world “independent” of patient safety violations — to save lives and stop the loss of them to medical errors.

Here are some of the dedicated folks who were able to make the picnic, all standing in front of the Consumer’s Union Cover America Tour Big Blue Bus:

Left to right: Curtis & Lisa Lindell, author of 108 Days, Houston, TX.
Helen Haskell, President, Mothers Against Medical Error, South Carolina
Kim Sandstrom, Mothers Against Medical Error, Ocala Florida
Dianne Parker, President, Patient Safety Advocates, Aiken, South Carolina
Lorin & Christine Jones, www.pamsjourney.org, Farmington, New Mexico
Dr. Ira Williams, author of First Do No Harm, Greenville, South Carolina

Missing from the photo is Sanjaya Kumar, MD, author of Fatal Care who was also in attendance.

………………………………..

Thanks to Lisa Lindell for sending the photo, and to all who attended for taking one more step toward awareness and solutions.  You are all fixers — and I appreciate that!

(Wish I could have joined you!)

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Those of you who follow my blog know that I’m a fan of Randy Pausch, like so many others. I first blogged about him last September, after watching his Lecture of a Lifetime — what he has learned in his too-short years, and the legacy he wants to leave his wife and children. As I said then, I felt his remarks were simply brilliant, and brilliantly simple.

[If you haven't heard of this fine man, you should know that in August 2007, he was given up to six months to live. He is dying of pancreatic cancer, a swift killer with very few who survive it more than a few months once it's diagnosed.]

Then in February I posted an update with a link to his personal blog. It has been one of the most linked-to posts I’ve ever written here.

I learned Randy appeared on Oprah today. That means that people who had not heard of Randy, and his “lecture of a lifetime” before today have certainly heard of him now.

I didn’t see Oprah, but I did decide I needed to check back in with this remarkable man. On his personal blog I found a link to the video of his address to the Carnegie-Mellon Class of 2008. (As an aside, I’m proud to say that my closest friend’s son, named Tim, was a top engineering graduate at Carnegie Tech this year — you go, Tim!)

Just like any of the other appearances of Randy’s I’ve witnessed, his graduation speech was moving; moving to the point that you just wish — just WISH — and hope and pray that his death is a loooong time coming from now. He is so generous with his words of wisdom. He needs more time to share them all.

He made two excellent points for the rest of us:

• When we are on our deathbeds, it won’t be the things we did that we regret. It will be the things we didn’t do.
• To live your best life, find your passion — the thing that fuels you from the inside. You won’t find it in things you buy or own. You’ll find it will be grounded in other people.

Since first discovering Dr. Pausch last year, I’ve felt a bit of a kinship. Unless you’ve ever heard that death sentence (you have only six months to live) you can’t really relate to it. But if you have heard it? You discover there is a very strong tie that binds you to that person — and I feel that tie with Randy Pausch.

Take the six minutes to watch his commencement address. It will stay with you, as I hope it will stay with those many graduates of Carnegie Mellon who were lucky enough to have known Dr. Randy Pausch, even if it was only for those few minutes at commencement.

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Kim Witczak, a fixer supreme, who has worked hard to protect others after losing her husband to prescription drug-induced suicide, has posted the second Every Patient’s Advocate Guest Blog Post — see it here.

Kim’s husband Woody was having trouble sleeping. His doctor prescribed Zoloft. Woody took his own life, and only later after doing some investigative work, did Kim learn that Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, knew that suicide was an adverse side effect of Zoloft. In order to get FDA approval to sell the drug, Pfizer covered up the studies that showed the suicide risk. Kim sued Pfizer and won the lawsuit.

Now it seems that drug companies are using FDA approval to stand between them and law suits. A recent ruling says patients who suffer from adverse events, even when they could not have known about possibilities because the drug companies withheld that information, cannot sue if the FDA gave approval.

So let’s think this through a minute…. the drug manufacturer lies by covering up patient deaths. The FDA approves the drug, because it doesn’t know the drug causes deaths. A patient takes the drug — and dies. And when a lawsuit ensues, the ruling is “sorry — since the FDA approved the drug, the patient has no case.”

Does this make sense to you? Read what Kim has to say about it. Then be outraged.

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What do you think of those prescription ads you see on TV, in magazines, newspapers and other places? Do you think they are helpful? Do you get frustrated because you know you can’t purchase those drugs directly anyway? Did you go to your doctor to ask about one of them? Do you think they are dangerous?

Prescription drug ads will be on TV for a long time. People may be objecting, but pharma is making a lot of money from them. I expect we’ll see many more of them, not fewer.

Truth is — if viewed in the right way, they can be useful. Unlike the dozens of anti-pharma folks who call for the demise of those ads, I say — if you can’t beat ‘em, then learn about ‘em.

And now, my friend Kim Witczak, founder of Woody Matters, has teamed with Consumer’s Union (non-profit publishers of Consumers Report) to petition the FDA to make these ads more helpful to consumers. It’s an idea borne of Kim’s wish to make drugs safer for Americans, based on the death of her husband, Woody, whose side effects from Zoloft caused him to take his own life.

The idea is that many side effects are unreported by drug companies, and the FDA can’t know about them unless those who take the drugs report them. (Don’t EVEN get me started on how that happens!) The proposal / petition asks for all pharma drug ads to include an 800 number and web address to report these problems as a part of the ad or commercial. Kinda like the warning on cigarette packaging — but even more useful because it’s a way we patients can really take action.

MedWatch is the FDA’s process for consumers to use to report their negative side effects and outcomes, but most consumers don’t know about it. The toll free number and web addresses already exist for reporting. (See below for that info.)

Consumer’s Union is hoping to garner 50,000 signatures — and you can easily sign right here online. You can take 30 seconds to say YES! to the idea of adding these two ways to report problems with drugs. Just follow this link to have your say.

……………………………………………..

Do you want to report side effects, problems or adverse events for a drug you take to the FDA?

Link here to MedWatch.

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