Julie recounts all of the treatments recommended by Tracy's doctors but ultimately denied by their insurance carrier – First Health Coventry – right down to the morphine he so desperately needed in his final days before he died at home.  "This sounds like just another statistic…but it's not.  Tracy was not.  Tracy Pierce was a father of a 14-year-old boy, a brother, a son, a friend, and he was my husband of 16 years!"

In 2007, Julie found out that because the cancer that killed her husband could also be genetic and be carried by their son, she would be wise to have Tracy, Jr., tested for the cancer marker that might indicate the need for aggressive screening in the future.  But even though their insurance carrier had been the subject of intense scrutiny, they still denied the genetic testing for Julie's son.  The testing was eventually done – but only after nurses raised the money need to cover the tests.

Just last week, Julie attended another vigil in Kansas City to remember her husband's death, and to continue the fight she promised Tracy she would never give up. "I never want another family to go through what we went through," Julie said.

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

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Ben Heywood, co-founder of PatientsLikeMe, outlines simple (but difficult) goals that those in the health 2.0 space must accomplish. Based on his post I take it that he highlighted these during his keynote address at the second Health 2.0 Northeast conference.

His simple but eloquent message to the health 2.0 community:

I believe we, as the eHealth community, need to focus on two major goals: 1) solve patients’ problems, and 2) create business models that allow us to do #1.

Successful companies must show real and tangible benefits directly to the patient consumer. As one who regularly participates in the health information discussion and debate as West Virginia moves forward with its health information network infrastructure — I often try to step back and ask, like Mr. Heywood, the simple question, “does this help the patient — why and how?”

To be disruptive and successful the current crop of creative companies have to show a direct and immediate impact on improving care and quality linked to a reduction in cost or a value proposition that the increase in cost is worth such expenditure.

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