Dr. Rob posted his response and Dr. Kevin posted his prepared opening comments.  I sincerely appreciated one though which was included in Dr. Kevin's later response post. Dr. Kevin acknowledges that “clinicians cannot understand a chronically ill patients’ life away from the exam room.” 

Thank you, Kevin. Here's that particular paragraph - “The event has received some criticism for not having patient representation on its primary care or specialist panels. But patient blogger, and frequent KevinMD critic, Duncan Cross was present as well, and rest assured, he will write several posts critiquing the event from a progressive point of view. [Duncan has indeed written many posts tagged ‘ppf’.]  It was nice to meet and chat with him, and I agree that if there’s one voice that even less heard than physicians, it’s that of the chronically ill. Most doctors will advocate on a patient’s behalf, but as he poignantly expressed to me, clinicians cannot understand a chronically ill patient’s life away from the exam room. And he’s right, we don’t. So, I appreciate his views, along with him pointedly reminding us that health reform truly affects patients first.”

This is only the beginning with Part One and continues with Part Two.  Please stay tuned for more, followed by some questions for you regarding your health care.

Lisa Emrich is author of the blog Brass and Ivory: Life with MS and RA and founder of the Carnival of MS Bloggers.