Quality Healthcare Should Not Depend on Which Book Club You Attend, Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post

Karen Tumulty, a political writer for the Washington Post, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She was told she had five years to live.  Then she went to book club with friends. On the way home she came out about her diagnosis—and that changed her life.  Someone in the car happened to be the President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, Ed Abrahams.  He made a referral and that led to better treatment and better survival. Karen’s story, along with that of her brother, is a must-listen for everyone involved in healthcare.  How does Karen’s story line up with the industry’s stories we tell ourselves? Does she think that the tale of precision medicine is getting out there?“What blew me away at the recent conference,” she says, “was that so many amazing medical advances that I was thinking were way over the horizon are here.”Are they really here, if people have to be in the right book club to hear about them?

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