Photo Friday: Picturing Health 2.0 – Dave and Kate

This week’s photograph is of the “famous infamous @epatientdave” and Kate Christensen, MD, who’s the medical director of kp.org, Kaiser Permanente’s web site for members. They are giving a presentation at HIMSS10 about involving patients and families, not just in their health care, but in the design of the healthcare system itself.

I used this photograph to illustrate the part of the presentation that Holly Potter and I gave at HIMSS10 that touched on Health 2.0.

I wanted to find something in my collection that describes what Health 2.0 means, along the lines of the famous/infamous definition commissioned right here from this blog, and I needed to look no farther than the SD card in my digital camera from the day before.

I’d like to say that it doesn’t take having an EHR, a PHR, or even a lot of technology to participate with patients (these things can help a lot, though). It just takes a desire to want to.

As I said in my comments the next day, I don’t believe Kaiser Permanente is the national leader in patient participation in the design and operation of the health system. This is good news, because there are lots of leading edge organizations who doing this work (you can find many of them here), and in them, you will find scenes just like this.

I should say that due to an unfortunate coincidence, Dave and Kate’s presentation was at the same time as a discussion being led by Health 2.0’s Matthew Holt and my favorite economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, so even in the same meeting, you’ll find many scenes like this!


1 Comment

Ted, you nailed it again. As I prepare for my first hands-on participation in a healthcare design exercise, as a "voice of the customer" in Beth Israel's Lean retreat this week, my homework has taught me how simple but vital it is to involve the customer, asking "What does s/he want? What would be of service to them?"

And now in a sense I see you, and Kaiser, and Beth Israel, and all of healthcare as my customer. Because if I'm to be valuable in this process, I must ask what would be of service to all of you.

So let me ask: what do you want? How can I, and we the patients, and we the Society for Participatory Medicine, serve you in achieving your goals?

Ted Eytan, MD