Level 3: Patient Power on the Web: The Multifaceted Role of Personal Health Wisdom

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss ``Level 3'' -- the wisdom ofpatients. We examine the increasingly prominent role ofpatients’ unique, highly personal, and experience-basedknowledge in individual health management, in understanding thehealth of populations in aggregate, and in pushing theboundaries of biomedicine through its grounding of participatorycitizen science.Main points The wisdom of patients is a uniqueand valuable resource that differs from the clinical expertiseprovided by medical professionals. The evolving landscape ofsocial media offers patients a range of options for sharingtheir wisdom online. Knowledge discovered through crowdsourcingenables personal health wisdom to take a prominent role inshaping the health and well-being of individuals, society, andthe future of biomedicine.