Thomas William Ferguson

American writer
Thomas William "Tom" Ferguson (July 8, 1943 – April 14, 2006) was an American medical doctor, educator, and author. He was an early advocate for patient empowerment, urging patients to educate themselves, to assume control of their own health care, and to use the Internet as a way of accomplishing those goals.

He was born in Ross, California and grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. He eventually settled in Austin, Texas, hometown of his wife Meredith Mitchell Dreiss. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and a master's degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University. He then went to Yale University School of Medicine, graduating in 1977 with an M. D. degree. However, he never had a medical practice. Instead he became a prolific writer about patients as medical consumers and about the doctor patient relationship, "arguing that informed self care was a jumping off point for better health and made for a richer, fairer, if nontraditional, partnership between physicians and their patients." In 1993 he organized the world's first conference devoted to computer systems designed for medical consumers.

He exemplified his own philosophy when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1991. "He relentlessly pursued strategies for both self care and the newest research and experimental practices for controlling this aggressive cancer Between relapses and debilitating treatments, he led a migration of medical consumer information to the internet, lectured widely on the emerging field of 'health informatics,' and earned a global reputation as a true innovator and pioneer in the field." He died April 14, 2006, while undergoing treatment in Little Rock, Arkansas.