The Patient Empowerment Paradox: Lyme Disease Rhetoric and Contested Health Literacies

This book offers a new framework for understanding why arguments keep patients and their healthcare providers ensnared in debates about individual healthcare choices instead of working collaboratively on effective care. Using a mixed-methods approach, I follow the consequences of patient empowerment rhetoric on Chronic Lyme disease patients, showing how quickly patients become entangled in medical power dynamics, misinformation, and decision fatigue. The findings can help scholars and practitioners better navigate medical uncertainty around other chronic, contested conditions such as Long COVID and ME/CFS.

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The Provider Empowerment Paradox: Doing No Harm in the Age of Self-Diagnosis

I’m conducting a new study on how healthcare providers’ experiences—both with patients and as patients themselves—shape their approach to patient-provider communication. I hope that listening to providers’ stories will offer insight into how patients can build trusting, respectful relationships with their doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.

To participate, you must:

The study involves a 1-hour long interview on Zoom or in-person at a location of the participant’s choosing.

UCF IRB #STUDY00009092 · Approved April 7, 2026