Full Disclosure: As a member of the ePatient Advisory Board for Stanford Medicine X, I receive a full scholarship to attend. That said, I’m super excited to officially be part of the 2014 conference. I even took the liberty of updating my profile for the conference program.

This will be my third year attending Medicine X. When I first applied in 2012, I didn’t know why I would be worthy to attend a conference held at Stanford, featuring patient advocates that I knew, respected, and felt that I couldn’t hold a candle to.

In the months after Medicine X 2012, I began to understand my role as a patient advocate and respect the fact that everyone has a story to tell. And every story is worth telling. With that mantra guiding me, I applied for and received an ePatient Scholarship to attend Medicine X in 2013.

Now I’m back, this time as a member of the ePatient Advisory Board. I still believe that everyone’s story is worth telling, and I continue to search for ways to empower and connect with voices and perspectives within patient communities – often focusing within the diabetes online community. Kindred spirits with busted pancreases and all.

And now that the initial abstracts for presentations and panels has been published, there’s even more reason to anticipate this year’s conference.

You can expect more talk about Medicine X as September approaches. Among the many meaningful and noteworthy moments in my journey as a patient advocate, Medicine X is one of the stand outs. Without this conference, this blog would be a rambling mess of cat pictures and nonsense. Now, it’s a rambling mess of cat pictures and nonsense with an occasional call to action or moment of clarity in the busy world of patient advocacy, with a side of patient engagement.

I’m not an authority on any of the stuff I write about here, but conferences like Medicine X help define, refine, and focus my thoughts in ways I never thought possible. This is a big deal for me. If you think it could be a big deal for you, registration is open now.

PS. I know the registration fee might look daunting. Even if you didn’t get a scholarship to attend, there are other options. Just a thought.