Looking forward to 2021
Our strength is in our collective support of each other and understanding of the health care system at hand.
By Alexandra Glorioso
December 31, 2020Editor's Notes
Happy New Year's Eve, readers.
Two months ago, I launched Barred Owl Press to amplify the patient's voice in a medical system controlled by corporations. Through essays and original reporting, we seek to transform it from one focused on making money to one focused on making patients well.
Barred Owl Press' first publication, Life Inside, launched in November as a series of original essays about my own traumas going through the health system to treat breast cancer.
We also launched a related store, as part of a larger marketplace, to create avenues for us to make money that don't involve charging readers for access to our content.
(Reminder: Today is your last chance to buy 2020 Life Inside founding member coffee mugs, including one with our new logo!)
Looking ahead to 2021, we have some exciting goals:
We're publishing our first book, a selection of Life Inside essays with original art.
That original art will be oil paintings on canvas that we plan to auction on our site, another way for readers to financially support us.
We also plan to launch two new publications in 2021. In one, we will investigate medical mysteries, starting with my own. In the second, we will publish patient testimonies highlighting human dignity, and the lack thereof, in our current health care system.
And we'll continue publishing reporting, essays and analysis on that system.
In 2021, our probes will extend to alternative treatments for chronic conditions. We need more personalized and more kinds of solutions to our health problems, and I plan to curate, investigate and review these products for you. Please get in touch if you want to collaborate.
Two months ago, I promised you an ecosystem that empowers patients, and this is one way I plan to create it. I want patients to write for us, engage with us, and ask us questions.
Email me about your health care experiences at alexandra@barredowlpress.com. Chat with other readers in our forum. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Barred Owl Press on Facebook.
The more our readers engage, the more educated they will become and the more able they will be to advocate for themselves.
And the more we take our power back as patients, the easier reforming the health system will become.
This positive feedback loop is part of the ecosystem I promised you. Our strength is in our collective support for each other and understanding of the health care system at hand.
I can't think of a better message for 2021.
Peace and love, Alexandra.
