My latest post have been related with my personal experience living MedX but this time I would like to talk about the HUGE thing that MedicineX is. Maybe, I’m talking about all of this because my professional life it’s very close with many forms of organizing, educate, engage, empower, research and accompany people and my view of the conference now it’s in the following journey..
- Being selected to attend as an Scholar:
Before I met MedX I had never imagined how a conference could think in people to trust in their own experience to contribute for an academic program… I had been in several conferences where you have a place and you are important just if you have done research, if your work has been aproved by another ones (the scientific group)… but never never that “you and only you” can contribute to give sense in this case to medicine.
Two years being selected and being blessed to be there made me understand why this first step makes an incredible journey and transformational movement when you think in healthcare. By the way, if you are someone who wants to change your life, this is the perfect way: Applications for MedX 2015
2.- The opportunity to speak
After being selected to participate with a scholarship I decided to start a new challenge: “speak at Stanford MedX”, this year the first step was doing a poster presentation and I really can say that was a dare because my interest became to continue my own empowerment and draw face to the invisible illness.. how all that I know about psychology, the things that my care givers and love ones have done for me and my motivation to help others could give life a paper? Well that happened because MedX exists.. The great thing here is.. if you want or have something to tell and that could help others, for sure MedX can give you a chance.

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3.- Building the “Wellness Room”
Different people, without knowing each other before and working together by a leader… a Great leader this time, Alan Brewington who gave us the power and confidence to create a place for all of us and many more at MedX, maybe one of the loveliest and relieving places for everyone in pain or illness.
A group of people working together on line to develop the needing and meaning of the wellness room; week by week Alan an the team back of advisors had indications and tools for us to build the challenge. I was very happy when we were not just working without reason, at the end, on September we could enjoy and feel the greatness of work for something made real.



4.- Partnering for health
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This workshop and special event it was VERY SPECIAL, It’s very new for me to know this kind of approach where patients, pharmaceutical, doctors, innovators and every stakeholders work together to find a way to benefit the health care system and the experience of patients in the clinical trials.
The experience begun some weeks before September 4, our advisor Sarah Kucharski and the Smart Patients team introduce to us the Lilly Team and some discussions developed in the Smart Patients forums were giving us an introduction to the Partnering for Health that we lived on Stanford.
When I think in education systems this approach is efficient, first you connect with your own experience accompanied by experts (the weeks before), then.. you have to think in your experience and make connections with new knowledge given by the speakers at the workshop, then you make synapsis transforming an example in the real life of the Pharmacist to make trials and finally you have to work together with your team mates to create new alternatives for the Patients and Pharmacist in this era of innovation and sharing knowledge and experiences.
I loved this time participating very actively in the discussions, giving my voice to the Lilly team and letting them know in México we need more of them and we could participate too in the transformation. Education means not just theory, education it’s interactive, creative, participatory and challenging. I think this workshop done all of this with us!!
5.- The hole conference
The full program was extraordinary, you can find different topics related with science and health, the role of the patient in health care, innovation and technology, research, trends in virtual communities and the power of social media, art in health care and maybe the most powerful, “the voice of the patients” ignite talks full of life.. The opening keynote was extraordinary, PhD Daniel Siegel (UCLA): “Interpersonal Connection”, couldn’t be better to open the program.
Joe Riffe , Michael Seres (On e Patients Entrepreneurs), Janet Freeman-Daily, Matthew Dudley are some examples of amazing histories that inspire and motivate all of us to continue the most positive way of life, facing illness and coping our pain.
6.- The ePatient Family
When you think in a conference, you never imagined, “you’ll have a family”… well, that really happens in MedX, the group of ePatients are now your family, your friends of life even when just 4 days you were together… The bonds of friendships starts there and continues for ever, it’s incredible how you can connect with someone and then they are very important for you and continue inspiring and making you feel always accompanied, strong and happy to have them.. I love my new MedX family!!







7.- The cristalization of being a #spoonie
It’s a label that give you strenght, have a figurative way to understand your illness, symptoms and some kind of explanation to others about your lifestyle it’s amazing… so, I had my spoon together with all my friends.. And the artist in residence Rachel B. Stork was the responsable of this:



I know that several things happened at MedX won’t be told by me, but more posts talking about the perfect journey will appear and the complete universe of blogs from my MedX family will talk about the true of this experience!
So, the story continues and for sure, we continues too.. belonging together!!