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Message from Juan:
I’m so grateful to be a patient advocate for the PCORI SDM study.
I have been a patient longer than I have been anything else in my life, starting with Hodgkins Disease in 1982 to Squamous Cell Carcinoma in 2024 and 3 other cancers in between, along with other Life Altering Experiences or as the medical profession calls them, Life Threatening Illnesses. In September 2015 I had a TAVR procedure. I was amazed that I was able to be checked in at 8:30am for a noon procedure and discharged at 3:30pm the next day, I felt like I had become years younger.
Throughout my experience as a patient for over 40 years I developed a keen sense to advocate for myself and develop partnerships with my doctors and healthcare practitioners, a Shared Decision Making tool has been for a long time a dream where the patient is well trained on their condition and the medical team supports a decision by having said patient at the center of the conversation.
My hope is that the SDM study is the beginning of a movement beyond Heart Valve Replacement Options to a more patient based collaboration which provides a higher level of health to all patients in all practices of medicine.
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