A recent national summit in Philadelphia gathered experts from the medical community, pharmaceutical industry and – most important of all – patients, sitting down together to craft a better way to deliver health care information. Or, as the conference Web site says, to “benchmark best practices for reaching and supporting digital health consumers.”

I was one of 20 patients from around the country involved in coming up with an “ePatient Bill of Rights.” This manifesto is a challenge to the health care industry to overhaul a broken system that seems to put the interests of everyone else – insurance companies, hospitals’ bottom lines, pharma’s drug patents – ahead of their consumers: America’s patients.

That’s not right; and we're out to fix it.

Are you a patient?

Absolutely. Unless you’re the healthiest person on the planet, you’ve been to see a doctor at some point in your life. And, for many of us with serious and/or chronic health issues, seeing a doctor isn’t the typical once-a-year physical: check your BP, look in your ears, see you later.

For “permanent patients,” staying relatively healthy is a work in progress, a regular part of life. One that can be scary, exhausting and, ultimately, frustrating, as systems – both the medical industry’s, and your own – break down and fail.

Since the time of Hippocrates, people have elevated doctors to a God-like position, seeing them as the all-knowing dispensers of medical wisdom, comfort, and cures. As Chris Schroeder, HealthCentral CEO and a key speaker at the conference, said, “…it really is shocking how much has been beaten into our DNA that health decisions are made by someone else.”

So true. We grow up believing “doctor’s orders” are something to be followed, not questioned. They’ve been to medical school; they’ll tell us what to do about that sore throat, aching back – or cancer.

But in our new digital world, a huge amount of knowledge is just a mouse click (or finger tap) away – from everyone. And you may very well know more about your inflammatory breast cancer or osteogenesis imperfecta than your 65-year-old GP, whose formal medical training concluded 40 years ago.

Attention: in today’s world, your doctor is no longer God. It’s OK to come to your appointment armed with information, a list of questions, and the expectation of a meaningful, productive two-way dialogue about your condition and how to treat it.

If you agree, congratulations: you are now an empowered patient. And you’re ready to embrace your new Bill of Rights, as developed at ePatient Connections:

•Shared access to my data
Digital health records will make it possible for you to access your medical information whenever you choose. Those test results, pathology reports, and labs are an assessment of YOUR body, YOUR health; read them, understand them, and make sure you can get to them when you need them.