www.youthtalk.org<\/a>. The charity works with an Oxford University research group which carries out qualitative research studies into people\u2019s experiences of health and illness, which are published both in academic journals and on the charity\u2019s website. The website, which has inspired similar ventures in seven or eight other countries, now has videos from patients talking about 70 different conditions.<\/p>\nSue Ziebland, research director of the Health Experiences Research Group, said that when Ann and Andrew Herxheimer set up the database of patients\u2019 experiences (hence the name DIPEx), Ann\u2019s inspiration arose from her experiences with breast cancer in the 1980s. She wanted to hear from other patients.\u00a0 She said that she had been given rather scanty advice, and a lot of it had been positive and over-optimistic, with doctors suggesting that she could have her chemotherapy in the morning and be back at work in the afternoon.\u00a0 She found it a relief to discover that other patients, like her, had found chemotherapy exhausting, and not the minor inconvenience it had been painted.<\/p>\n
Numerous speakers spoke of Ann\u2019s formidable powers of persuasion.\u00a0 Everyone agreed it was impossible to say No to her requests. Jon Snow, (who is a patron of healthtalkonline) said that he always dreaded the words, which began: \u201cI know I am always asking you to do things, but\u2026.\u201d It inevitably preceded a request to do something that \u201cyou didn\u2019t have time to do, that you didn\u2019t necessarily want to do, but that you knew that you would end up doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speakers, who described her as innovative, tough, warm, impossible, independent, intelligent, thoughtful, left me with the feeling that one of her secrets was that she never asked people to do favours for her personally, and that her causes were well thought out, evidence based and inspiring. Dr John Coleman, a clinical and developmental psychologist, pointed out that even today, after numerous initiatives on adolescent health, many GPs still provided no special services for teenagers, despite the fact that they are going through an important transition, when they are vulnerable and when they adopt health behaviours that may persist throughout their lives.<\/p>\n
Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, forced us all to think about how we could carry forward her legacy.\u00a0 She made us sit in silence for a few minutes to think about it (though the silence was broken by the happy gurglings of one of Ann\u2019s six grandchildren).\u00a0 You then had to tell the person next to you what you had decided. The woman next to me, who had helped develop a module for healthtalkonline, decided that she would make it her job to publicise the module, because not enough people knew about it.<\/p>\n
Having heard from everyone about how good Ann was at picking up the phone and asking people to do things, I decided that my new resolution would be to do the same for the kidney transplant charity, with which I am involved. So anyone reading this is now forewarned.
\nOther speakers at the meeting included Dr Ruth Harris, professor of modern history at Oxford University and one of her patients; Dr Lisa Hinton, a senior qualitative researcher with the Health Experiences Research Group; Sir Iain Chalmers, founding director of the UK Cochrane Centre; and Joe Collier, emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George\u2019s Medical School, who together with Ann, set up Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying.<\/p>\n
Iain Chalmers explained how Ann was as keen as he was on collecting the best possible evidence in all areas of medicine, and related how Ann had helped by reviewing journal articles in the area of obstetrics and gynaecology, when he was preparing his book, Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth.
\nAnn was married to the epidemiologist Professor Klim McPherson, and had three children who all attended the conference, and six grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Clare Gerada concluded the day by saying that she would forward Ann\u2019s legacy by trying to extend the average GP consultation time from 10 to 15 minutes, and by raising the issue of assisted dying again with the Royal College of GPs by the end of November.<\/p>\n
She told the meeting: \u201cIf we are to keep the founding principles of the NHS alive, the patient\u2019s voice must be our guide.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Annabel Ferriman<\/strong> is news editor, BMJ.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What was Ann McPherson\u2019s secret?\u00a0 How did she manage to accomplish so much, but still remain a warm hearted person, who remembered birthdays, gave porridge to Jon Snow when he turned up for breakfast time meetings, and offered the keys of her house to friends needing somewhere to stay? […]<\/p>\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[5640],"class_list":["post-16990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-at-large","tag-health-charities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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What was Ann McPherson\u2019s secret?\u00a0 How did she manage to accomplish so much, but still remain a warm hearted person, who remembered birthdays, gave porridge to Jon Snow when he turned up for breakfast time meetings, and offered the keys of her house to friends needing somewhere to stay?