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When Cache Gets In Your Way

hiding under the bed

Do you think that title has a typo in it? It doesn’t! In fact, this post is totally UNrelated to “cash” – or money. Instead today we’re looking at a cache – a hiding place – or a noun defined as “a hidden or inaccessible place.” (As in hiding under the bed!) Now, as a patient or health advocate, you may think that such a term would relate to HIPAA or medical records, and in some TIPS, that might be […]

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Avoiding Email Address Dilemmas

In the old days when we had only a postal address – house number, street name, city, state (or province) and code – who ever could have anticipated the problems we experience with “mail” today? And by mail, I mean email. And by problems, I mean – so many of them! How can something seemingly so simple be so complicated? Here are some of the email dilemmas I hear about, or experience for myself, every day. I share them with

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Launching Your Practice with Your MVP (Probably NOT What You Think!)

MVP Minimum Viable Product

Anyone who helps a patient get what they need from the healthcare system is an MVP (Most Valuable Person!), especially in the eyes of patients and their loved ones. That’s probably the MVP you thought would be the subject of this post. Nope! Instead, in this post I’m going to feature a business concept called MVP, used by start-up businesses that are trying to determine when it’s time for them to launch. MVP as a Start-Up Business Concept As they

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Consider This: Giving Advice, Making Decisions, and Nuance

image - giving advice

An email from Helen, a soon-to-be independent advocate, posed this question to me: When I read the codes of ethics and best practices for advocates, I am clear that we can’t make decisions for clients. But how can I give them advice without sounding like I’m making a decision for them? Example: they asked me to find a neuro-oncologist for them. So I did. But now it seems like I was deciding which doctor they should see – making that

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Penny Wise, Pound Foolish, Lost Opportunity

Penny Wise dumb decisions image

I have two stories to tell you today to illustrate the reason for this tip, both of which will, hopefully, turn on that “aha!” lightbulb that resides in our heads… Story #1: The first story was told to me by a neighbor who has a son, Brian, thirty-something, who, as she explained, lacks the common sense he was born with. (To me, the jury is out on whether he was, actually, born with it at all….) Brian has made foolish

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