SHIS Adjunct Faculty Member Dies

Tom Ferguson, M.D., 62, who advocated use of the Internet as a powerful tool in health care, died April 14 in Little Rock, Ark., according to a report in the New York Times. He was an adjunct associate professor of health informatics at The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston. A graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine, Ferguson urged doctors to collaborate with patients, and he urged patients to educate themselves and take responsibility for their own health. He established several newsletters to help them.

A health and medical editor for the Whole Earth Catalog in the 1960s and 70s, he also was author or co-author of a dozen books, including Health Online: How to Find Health Information, Support Groups and Self Help Communities in Cyberspace. Among Ferguson’s recent positions were senior associate at the Center for Clinical Computing, which is associated with the Harvard Medical School; adjunct faculty member at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Center; and senior research fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.