Last year’s Stanford Medicine X (#MedX) took place during the same weekend that I created my diabetes blog, Very Light, No Sugar. I was new to the internet blogosphere in September of 2014, and I spent much of my time that weekend soaking it all in.

This exists?! THIS! These concepts that have been bouncing around in my head for so long have a place and a name and a community?! Perhaps I can be part of it? Everyone seems friendly and cool! YES!!!

These were my initial thoughts as I perused the blogs of the diabetic online community (#doc) and followed the #MedX hashtag as ePatient delegates and other MedX attendees tweeted live from the conference. I later watched videos of the MedX 2014 speeches, read blogs of MedX alums, and visited and re-visited and re-visited some more the 2015 ePatient application portion of the Stanford Medicine X website.

I made the rookie mistake of writing 1,000-word answers to the MedX application instead of providing 1,000-character responses as instructed. Upon discovering this issue, I stripped my answers down to the core of why I felt so passionately about this conference and improving healthcare, and I finally clicked “submit” late one evening. Fast forward to now- about five weeks away from MedX 2015- and I could not be more excited to be an ePatient delegate this year and to share the information absorbed at the conference with all of you.

MedX is so special because it takes the “What if’s?” and does not shy away from them in fear.  Rather, MedX imagines and creates the possibilities.  MedX connects the respective patient, provider, and technology dots of the healthcare equation by putting them all together at the same conference.  They are allowed to work together, to dare to dream big, to share the positives and the negatives of their personal healthcare experiences, and to learn from one another in the process.  Recognizing that healthcare is an ongoing evolution, MedX keeps the conversation going before, during, and after the conference.

Many MedX alums have noted how much their lives were positively-influenced by attending MedX. With the conference just around the corner, I find myself keenly aware that this is the “before” stage for me. I study healthcare, work in it, live it through my experience as a type one diabetic, and have moments of inspiration and frustration along the way. After attending MedX from September 25 through September 27, 2015, I will gain a viewpoint that covers a vast array of healthcare experiences- those of other patients, those of providers, and those of technological gurus and innovators in the healthcare field. This will be the “after” stage. I already know that this opportunity is a blessing beyond what I can imagine right now, and I am so very thankful to get to attend MedX 2015.

I am most excited about learning from different perspectives while at MedX. Although I know a lot about diabetes because I live with it, I recognize that healthcare goes far beyond insulin injections and endocrinology. At MedX, there will be industry leaders discussing breakthroughs in technology, ePatients who have battled brain tumors or acted as caregivers for their loved ones, and providers who put their patients’ best interests first and foremost. Taken together, all of these contexts are a valuable asset to improving healthcare as a whole.

The fellow 2015 ePatient delegates to MedX are a great crew of people, as are the Stanford Medicine X administrative team and advisory board. MedX participants come from diverse backgrounds, encounter different health obstacles, and have unique experiences from which to draw from. Yet we share an unspoken comradery before even having stepped foot on the Stanford campus. We have put ourselves out there online because we believe wholeheartedly in improving healthcare. We advocate for better access to care, more open dialogues amongst all members of the healthcare equation, promising futures for those who endure our respective disease processes, and more. We know the feelings of joy on the good days and pain on the bad days, and we maintain hope that the best is yet to come in the future. MedX provides the perfect environment in which to work hard towards these goals and to be a part of the conversation about improving healthcare.

For more information on Stanford MedX, please visit medicinex.stanford.edu.

Disclaimer: I have received a partial scholarship to attend MedX as a 2015 ePatient delegate. Opinions expressed here are strictly my own.