There is a quote, I'm trying to find, something about all the undiscovered Einstein's, people with the intellectual capabilities of Einstein, living lives as sharecroppers; their mental prowess undiscovered. It came to me over the past couple days at the Health Care Social Media Summit.

I have met some incredible people at the summit, both this year and last. I think of e-Patient Dave and Liver Lindsey, people who have been able to use their skills to live empowered lives in the face of cancer. The e-Patient movement is bringing important changes to health care, as patients take a more engaged role in their own health. They speak well to the folks from the hospitals and health systems that send staff to conferences like this.

I come from a different sort of health care system. I work for a Federally Qualified Health Center. Most of our patients are uninsured or are on Medicaid. They live their lives below 200% of the Federal Poverty level. Their struggles are not overcoming some rare disease, but simply living day to day, being able to get healthy food, exercise, and the health care they need. They don't have computers at home or the skills and reading ability to be the sort of e-Patients we hear about at conferences like this.

Our health center talks a lot about health care being a right, not a privilege, but it seems like the e-Patient movement is for those with decent educations and good access to the Internet. What about our patient population? Will they be left behind? Will the e-Patient movement increase the health disparities in our country? What can we do to prevent a widening health care rift and bring the e-Patient movement to all Americans?

On Tuesday, I met a doctor giving voice to this concern at this conference. Dr. Ivor Horn spoke about how many underserved patients are on social media. They have different usage patterns. They're on Twitter using smartphones and we need to find ways to serve them. There are probably other usage patterns we need to understand as well.

I suspect that e-Patient Dave or Liver Lindsey would be just as compelling and compassionate to the underprivileged as they have shown themselves to be to attendees of this conference, so I have my fantasy panel: e-Patient Dave, Liver Lindsey, Dr. Ivor Horn, and Junaid's Mom talking about helping underserved e-patients. For those who aren't regular readers of my blog, Junaid died this summer of Neuroblastoma. His mother, brought up in poverty, a former drug addict who has been clean for several years now, and the victim of domestic violence, is a powerful woman, an e-Patient amongst the underserved.

How do we address the needs of underserved potential e-patients? It's a discussion that it is time to have.

Postscript: After writing this, I noticed that it is Alejandra Ospina's birthday. Alejandra is the Community Liaison at GimpGirl Community and a powerful spokesperson for people with disabilities. She would be another great member of my fantasy panel.