Published! The report I co-authored with Josh Seidman, Ph.D. from the Center for Information Therapy is now online. It describes our experiences out “in the rest of health care” understanding the environment that supports patient centered health information technology. My conclusion: we can make it happen.
Helping Patients Plug In: Lessons in the Adoption of Online Consumer Tools – CHCF.org
I am here at the WIxRed Conference in Washington, DC, the annual conference of the Center for Information Therapy and in my comments, decided to include some information about the work I am doing with California Healthcare Foundation to connect Californians to good chronic illness management. I mentioned that this is the first time I have posted a project “in evolution” for the world to assess and give feedback. Crowdsourcing my job – let’s see how it goes, and thanks to CHCF for allowing me to give this a try.
A few pics, first (click on any to see larger size)
One of the important aspects of this work is the employee / patient perspective. We are looking to include a patient / employee advisor in planning the project, and a conversation I had just now confirms how valuable this could be.
I was told that in many workplaces, there are rules about bathroom breaks, ie when they can be taken. Because of this, some patients will skip taking blood pressure medication that may require more trips to the bathroom.
It was so interesting for me to hear about this because at the very same time, I’m reading “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” (Barbara Ehrenreich) which brings home the reality of modern workplaces for those making minimum wage (or less). Look for that review in the next few days.
I’d like readers to think about this example, and give me more ideas if you would – what are some ways that a chronic illness impacts your work life, even for illnesses that some people don’t think about? What are the a ha’s that maybe the medical system isn’t aware of? Thanks for your input. The example above is a reminder of the value of patients as partners in planning and implementation.
I am back in DC this time, and this photograph was taken at gate A1, San Francisco airport, and shows a VirginAmerica employee leading a mini US Open Golf Tournament at the gate before boarding. The gate area right before a transcontinental flight is probably the last place you expect to see community being created, but this was what was attempted yesterday. Just the fact that the VirginAmerica staff person stood in front of, instead of behind, the podium, says something about being as close to your customer as possible.
Health 2.0 is participatory healthcare. Enabled by information, software, and community that we collect or create, we the patients can be effective partners in our own healthcare, and we the people can participate in reshaping the health system itself.
Matthew Holt recognizes this as the latest definition out there. As I mentioned in my comments on previous posts about this , I started this process out of necessity. I needed to describe health 2.0 in a presentation to the Board of the California Healthcare Foundation. I did use the definition above, and what I was/am happiest about it is that it’s something I would not have come up with in my physician state of being (as patient focused as I am), and that it was finalized and approved by a patient.
We’re talking about a definition this time; isn’t this a metaphor for how any health system improvement should happen from now on?
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