Healthcare System

 

general, others' e-patient stories

Elaine Schattner: Don Berwick, Head of CMS, on the Value of Patient-Centered Care

Usually we talk about participatory medicine at the level of the individual care relationship, but increasingly we’re seeing the need to “Design and create a safe, decent, patient centered healthcare system.” And as we start to get real about that – concrete, tangible change– I’ve heard people wonder, “What do they mean by patient-centered?” Thanks [...]

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policy issues, reforming hc, Why PM

“Design and create a safe, decent, patient centered healthcare system.”

Yesterday the New York Times reported that some health insurers have applied to regulatory agencies to push premiums sharply higher - usually double-digit increases, while citizens are suffering.  This falls on top of the 11 year history reported last year by the Kaiser Family Foundation: wages and inflation are up ~40%, while health costs and worker [...]

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medical records, trends & principles, Why PM

Is Your Healthcare Practice Patient-centered?

Yesterday I was at a monthly TelePresence meeting of the Person Centered Health initiative, a group that started in Canada that’s closely aligned with the Society for Participatory Medicine. At this meeting, some expressed concern that the memes of “person-centered health,” “patient-centered healthcare,” “participatory medicine,” and the like are becoming so overused as to become [...]

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pt/doc co-care, Why PM

Patient to doctor: “Why aren’t you harder on me?”

A joint post by e-Patient Dave and Dr. Danny Sands, written from alternating points of view. Danny: An important moment happened a few months ago during office hours – important because it brought a profound shift in Dave’s view of the doctor-patient relationship. And that’s a vital part of participatory medicine.

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general

Video: If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care

Back in September, Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal wrote a terrific (fact-based!) send-up of our archaic, arcane, not-customer-centric healthcare system, titled “If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care.” I wish I’d known about it then, but I only learned of it recently, because a couple called “The New Altons” have made a great home-brew [...]

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general

2010: The Year of Open Streams & Fax Machines

I started writing this post while watching a livestream of the LeWeb09 conference in Paris and finished it while watching a livestream of TEDxSV. Open Streams are of many kinds and shapes. They are completely changing how we consume information, news & entertainment. .. It could be a joke and it could be funny! Instead, it [...]

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medical records, positive patterns, pt/doc co-care, trends & principles, Why PM

Why Participatory Medicine?

For most people, their impetus to be actively engaged in healthcare comes from an experience with serious illness—either their own or a loved one’s. My journey into participatory medicine began during my internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, a public urban hospital, in the late 1980s.  While there, I had a number of realizations [...]

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maternity, positive patterns, trends & principles

Low-Tech Models of Participatory Medicine: The Astounding Results of Group Prenatal Care

A signal moment in the history of this blog was the arrival in late summer of a new ally, the birthing movement, represented by Amy Romano, the blogger at Science and Sensibility, the Lamaze International blog. Amy gets it: participatory medicine is not just about the internet – it’s about being empowered and engaged. Her [...]

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e-patient stories, general, Why PM

A family becomes e-patients, of necessity — and succeeds

This is an inspiring story from several years ago of how a family became e-patients. When things got rough they were empowered and engaged, taking matters into their own hands. As the picture shows, there’s a happy ending, though it was rough along the way. Unlike millions in the US today, Gangadhar Sulkunte and his [...]

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net-friendly docs, pt/doc co-care, reforming hc, trends & principles, Why PM

“Doctors Are Killing Their Profession, the Healthcare System and Their Patients with Paternalism”

That’s the strongest language yet in our “Why Participatory Medicine” series. And it’s not our words – it’s the words of a board certified neurosurgeon after he heard the Participatory Medicine message at Medicine 2.0 last month. The message echoed his thoughts, and he blogged about it. The “DocPatient” blog, by Dr. Louis Cornacchia of [...]

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