Calling All Physicians: Support the Participatory Medicine Movement

March 10, 2010 · Filed Under Why PM, pt/doc co-care · 5 Comments

Participatory Medicine is a new paradigm in healthcare, one that promises to enhance healthcare efficiency, transform the experience for both the patient and their providers, and improve healthcare outcomes. This cultural shift requires adaptation among healthcare professionals (including physicians) as well as patients and caregivers.

And yet changing culture amongst physicians remains challenging, for a variety of reasons (some good, some not so good). For example, it takes an average of 17 years until physicians adopt proven best practices. Hopefully, Participatory Medicine won’t take so long.

Yet, there are many of my colleagues who are already adherents to the model of Participatory Medicine, although they may not call it that. Read more

Tags: 17 Years, Adaptation, Adherents, Best Practices, caregivers, Colleagues, Efficiency, health information, Healthcare Outcomes, Healthcare Professionals, Information Point, Medicine, Medicine Movement, Motivations, New Paradigm, Online Communities, Physicians, Respectful Relationship, Spectator Sport, Spm, Support Communities

Health 2.010: New Year, New Era

January 16, 2010 · Filed Under Why PM, positive patterns, reforming hc, trends & principles · 11 Comments

This is a guest post by Lucien Engelen (Dutch Twitter friend @Zorg20), who was featured in October’s The internet is changing healthcare – video from Reshape09. Here, he takes it to the next step, moving from health 2.0 to “health 2.010”. I love it! - Dave
Read more

Tags: Amp, caregivers, Cho, Choices, Conferences, demographics, Engelen, Freedom Of Choice, Glance, Graph, Hasn, Hc, Honest Opinion, Impulses, Institutions, Lucien, Myths, Netherlands, New Era, New Year, Offerings, Period Of Time, Rare Occasion, Rough Sketch, Short Period, Social Networks, Tweet, Twitter

Consumer Partnership for eHealth’s thoughts on Meaningful Use

May 13, 2009 · Filed Under medical records, policy issues, positive patterns, reforming hc, trends & principles · 3 Comments

Precursor posts: The “meaningful use” debate (my thoughts); the Markle Foundation’s work on the subject

Thanks to Josh Seidman of the Information Therapy Blog for steering me to the “meaningful use” work that’s been done by the Consumer Partnership for eHealth – another great group I’d never heard of. I’m loving the way Web 2.0 lets us discover, and help each other discover, new allies and resources.

Here are some highlights of CPeH’s view. Meaningful use is when:

Care is comprehensive, coordinated, personalized and planned
Patients and their caregivers are full partners in their care, assisted with management of chronic illnesses and health care decision making
Transitions between settings of care are smooth, safe, effective and efficient
Patients can get care when and where they need it
Patients’ experience of care is routinely assessed and improved
Care is connected to and integrates community resources
Continuous quality improvement and the elimination of disparities are a top priority

Don’t you love it? Wouldn’t you love to have that be LAW??

If you’re into this stuff, please read the rest of Josh’s post. More important info on CPeH and on Markle. Good contribution.

Tags: Allies, blog, caregivers, Chronic Illnesses, Community Resources, Continuous Improvement, Continuous Quality Improvement, Debate, Discover, Disparities, Ehealth, Full Partners, Groups, Health Care Decision, information therapy, Loving The Way, Markle Foundation, Partnership, Precursor, Seidman, Top Priority, Transitions

Visiting hours

January 3, 2008 · Filed Under pt/doc co-care · 1 Comment

An article in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal traces the history of visiting patients in hospitals in England, from the 18th century to the present.

Sadia Ismail and Graham Mulley paint quite a picture in their opening lines:

From 2 pm they gather at the entrance to the ward, occasionally drifting through the doors, only to be reminded by sister that “visiting starts at 2.30 pm.” Doctors cower in the office, completing paperwork and dreading that journey to the bedside for a drug card, fearing they may pay the price with a long tirade from a patient’s relative.

It reminded me of what Tom Ferguson wrote in Chapter 4 of “e-patients” (see p. 57, under “Forgotten Heroes”):

[Family caregivers] outnumber all other types of health care workers combined by a factor of four to one, yet they often feel like the odd person out when dealing with hospitals and medical professionals. In the world of Health e-Communities, they are first-class, not second-class, citizens and frequently serve as the group’s mainstays, organizers, and hosts.

Ismail and Mulley conclude their article with a call for flexibility and mutual understanding:

We believe that a shift in culture is needed to ensure the best practice on visiting policies. Any visiting restrictions should be based on mutual respect and consideration. Health professionals should consider the rights, worries, and needs of patients and their families, and visitors need to understand the roles and pressure on staff and the needs of patients other than their own relative. Perhaps patients’ control of their visiting hours in the form of a contract may help, and this merits formal study.

We talk quite a bit about how most health care happens outside a clinical setting, but I think this article brings up important questions about how expectations are also changing in hospitals.

Tags: care, caregivers, clinic, hospitals, patients

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