President Obama made a big speech last night. I watched it. Then I watched two hours of commentary about it on cable. This morning I read the transcript of the speech, and read the N.Y. Times and some other stuff about it on line.
Guess what - despite all the talk about patient centered care we've been hearing, not one word from any of the pundits about how the patient might actually be able to contribute information - data - about what's happening when he sees his doctors that could reduce the cost and raise the quality of health care. Given that the patient is involved in every single billable transaction with his health care providers, this struck me as a sort of major oversight.
What sort of information might the patient have?
Did the doctor apply the latest evidence based standards for his condition?
Did the doctor effectively communicate what he needed to do to manage his condition?
Did the doctor seek to form a therapeutic partnership with him facilitating dignified accountability and better self management of his condition?
The ability to measure just these three things could bring about deep, game changing improvements and value to our health care system.
What kind of changes?
• Empowered Patients
• Expanded Transparency
• Mapped Performance
• Intensified Accountability
• Intensified Compliance
• Improved Utilization
• Improved Outcomes
• Protected Consumers
• Reduced Fraud
• Reduced Capita Spending
The National Center for Patient Interactive Research is developing innovative, technology driven approaches to the successful engagement of the patient in the care process, and to creating a true therapeutic partnership between the patient, the physician and other care givers.
Patient-generated data can help to transform the current health care model. At the moment, this is the only voice which is not being heard on a systematic, standardized and measurable basis.
The patient should, and can, have a central role in developing their treatment plan. The communication facilitated and fostered by this therapeutic partnership is the key to improving health outcomes related to chronic diseases and reducing disparities among vulnerable populations.
Third party collected, patient generated data is the gold standard of unbiased quality measurement. This data must be analyzed to understand what is and is not working. This will bring confidence, integrity and transparency to the process.
Bill Fox, JD, MA
Executive Director
CPIR
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