I don’t want to be “One in a Million” - I want to help One Million People be like me!

As 2020 comes to an end, I would like to share my thoughts on the year and a little bit about the last decade. First, some background: I have been an athlete since the age of 7 years old. Sports, training, and competing is in my blood. There came the point in my career as a professional windsurfer that I realized that my financial future in Hood River, Oregon would be one of these:  1. Cocktail Waitress, 2. Retail Store Manager, 3. Real Estate Agent.  Instead, a friend and I had a bright idea to start an Internet company after downloading a web browser from a Bulletin Board Server (BBS). It was 1993, and people said the Internet was a fad that wouldn’t catch on. However, my gut told me it would be a “thing,” and I stuck with it. Anyway, after building early websites in exchange for food and snowboard clothing, our first paying customer was Bank of America in San Francisco and the launch of the original www.bankamerica.com website in 1995. Since then, I have traveled the world, developing and implementing internet/technology products and solutions. 

Many of my friends and colleagues didn’t know that I have also been a lifelong heart patient. I was 18 years old when I was diagnosed with rare heart arrhythmias. In 1983 I participated in an experimental procedure to ablate the AV Node that left me 100% dependent on an implanted pacemaker.  Currently, I am on my 7th implanted pacemaker.  I never stopped training and competing, though I did take up new sports. In 2010, after open heart and lung surgeries, I challenged myself to become a competitive cyclist. There is a future blog post about the process of feeling safe enough to have the confidence to get back on my bike and cross the finish line of my first race and then to accomplish even more by crossing the finish line of IRONMAN Tempe, AZ, in 2019.  The important note is that my journey from hospital bed to the IRONMAN finish line was possible because I learned to use data, wearable devices, and mobile apps. I learned to control my wellness and communicate more effectively with my physicians for my healthcare.

Looking back at the first quarter of 2020, everything in my life was “normal” until March 1st, 2020.  In my 8th year at Google, I worked on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) healthcare initiatives, specifically digital health and patient empowerment. From January 5th to March 1st, I had already spent 57 nights in hotels and been on an airplane every week to speak on the topic of data empowering patients. There were murmurings of COVID-19 at the conferences I attended. Speakers and attendees had to cancel to attend emergency meetings in early February.  It was mid-March when it seemed the world shut down for the rest of us, and everything changed. Google moved to a “work from home” policy, which was nothing new for me as I live in Idaho. What I had to get used to was not traveling. Going to the airport each week is just what I did. The first month was surreal, and I choose to take the opportunity to step back from my “normal” crazy life and reflect on what I wanted my future to become.

What I saw around me was disheartening.  People in my community seemed to acquire the mindset of a terminal patient overnight.  The threat of COVID-19 had people feeling as if they were about to receive a life-threatening diagnosis.  People waking up each day in fear, feeling it is not safe to do “normal” things, surrounded by conflicting messages from the experts.

Many of us managing life-long chronic diseases have already lived through this scenario many times. The fear when diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Not knowing how to stay safe when at home, and the diminishing trust in a healthcare system that doesn’t have any answers to our questions. Surviving each of the phases of our condition builds up our confidence and resilience to adversity. Patients with chronic disease can choose how they want to live life. They can choose to be a victim of the illness and accept living in fear. Some choose to become angry and blame the healthcare system for taking away their “normal.” However, the best outcomes are the patients that choose to become educated, engaged and a co-collaborator/decision-maker with their doctor.  I see individuals make similar choices related to COVID-19 as they create their “new normal” in how they treat the people around them and activities they engage in each day. 

I chose to be knowledgeable and engaged in my many heart issues because I knew early on in my treatment that no one will care more about my dreams and happiness than I do, and I wanted to Dream Big!  It has allowed me to accomplish unique goals and have incredible experiences. I was an early adopter of wearable devices and sensors that provided meaningful insights to stay safe and be a compliant patient while improving my athletic performance. Thanks to my Garmin watch, Apple 5 watch, and Strava timeline, I have developed longitudinal data sets to identify anomalies in my heart rate and other biomarkers. I then can share the actionable insights with my doctor as a collaborator on my care decisions. This same approach is even more critical today in dealing with COVID-19. 

I have made essential changes in my life due to the “new normal” of COVID-19. I decided to follow my passion for improving patient outcomes and educating healthcare providers on digital health tools. My work with the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC.org) and other medical device industry organizations has made my mission clear. People often tell me that my patient voice is “One in a Million” because I am knowledgeable, engaged, and understand how to use digital health tools. I don’t want to be one in a million. I want to help one million people be like me! With my Duke University Integrated Medicine Healthcare Coaching training, I want to inspire people to become educated about their healthcare issues, engaged in their wellness using digital health tools, and better communicators with their doctor. The more knowledge we have, the more control over our life outcomes, and the less we need to fear.

I wish everyone a wonderful and Happy New Year! Cheers to 2021!