I have worked as a senior executive and consultant in hospitals and physician group setting for over 25 years. From 2009 to 2015, became a curator and blogger (Mind The Gap) on all things pertaining to improving relationships between physicians and patients particularly as it related to doctor-patient communications and engagement. In 2015, I took a sabbatical from my research curating, and writing to care for my wife full time. My wife was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in 2004.Over the course of my journey with my wife of 35 years, my role became that of care navigator among other things. My role was to make sure my wife got access to the best doctors and the latest treatments. My wife was incredibly lucky. She lived 13 years with a condition that normally claimed its victims within 3-6 months of diagnosis. Being highly engaged and informed had a lot to do with her remarkable survivorship, Being there for my wife has been the greatest accomplishment of my life.Over the course of my wife's and my journey, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in some 500 physician-patient exam room encounters. I witnessed firsthand what I had heretofore only read about in the research when it came to the beliefs and mindsets that physicians and patients bring to medical encounters ... and how these beliefs unknowingly sabotage the outcomes sought. After a hiatus of 3 years, I am returning to champion a new vision for patient engagement, including new ways of measuring and improving the level of patient involvement in their own health care. A vision that recognizes that before providers can engage patients online between visits ... providers must first be able to engage patients as human beings during visits. I have worked as a senior executive and consultant in hospitals and physician group setting for over 25 years. From 2009 to 2015, my blog Mind the Gap was a leading voice for improved physician-patient communication beginning in the exam room. Today I bring that same commitment and "academic rigor and wit" to humanizing health care face-to-face during visits ... as well as online between visits.