The broad debate about the role of consumers in health care policy is important to the Lyme community. However, many of the things that have harmed Lyme patients, powerful unresponsive medical societies with conflicts of interest, the patients’ lack of voice in the process, and access to care limitations should concern every patient, regardless of the disease. An important article on patients and their skepticism for evidence based medicine appeared in Health Affairs this month. (“Evidence That Consumers Are Skeptical About Evidence-Based Health Care”). Ray and I responded to the article with an eletter, “Consumer Acceptance Depends on Whether Guidelines Reflect Patient Values”, which is published with the article. Links can be found after the jump.

Bring on the links!

Carman et al, “Evidence That Consumers Are Skeptical About Evidence-Based Health Care” 

Johnson and Stricker, “Consumer Acceptance Depends on Whether Guidelines Reflect Patient Values” 

My original blog post on the article goes into more depth. 

 You can follow additional comments on Lyme policy at www.lymepolicywonk.org.  You can contact Lorraine Johnson at lbjohnson@lymedisease.org.