The Healthcare IT Puzzle: Something is missing… “Oh yes, the patient!”

What does “patient-centric” really means? – that was one of the questions addressed during the interactive Roundtable organized by the Institute of Federal Health Care and Lifetime Health Diary in Washington, D.C. on March 4.

While it’s now generally agreed that the patient should have access to his/her own health records and control them, it seems as though our healthcare system is not designed with the patient in mind. Not only does it ignore the patient as a stand-alone and the most responsible decision-maker in the healthcare value chain, it also fails to provide ways for collaborative decision-making by all parties involved in the care of an individual. How do we change and redesign the system so the patient is in the middle? How do we address gender and race differences when delivering care to make it more specific to each group? How do we make delivery of care more adequate when treating chronic illness patients, undeserved communities members (Latino, HIV/AIDS, mental health, etc.)? Finally, how do we initiate a behavior change in the patients?
All these questions were addressed and discussed last Friday by a very diverse group of participants where everyone came with his/her own personal story to share about the inability of obtaining the health records in the most critical moment in life (e-Patient Dave and Regina Holliday), frustrating birth experience where the “care team” does not corroborate decisions made by the patient (Lygeia Ricciardi), lack of transparency in the healthcare and inadequate care delivery to diabetes patients (Amy Tenderich), and other touching stories once again proving that changes in the healthcare system should be made “right now and right here”.
I think because we had such a diverse group of people with different backgrounds (government, patient advocates, enterprise, academia) but evenly passionate about healthcare transformation, the Roundtable turned into a very insightful and productive event. I think one of the most exciting and memorable moments for me was when Regina Holliday offered to re-configure the room. Yes, we all were talking about a need for a behavior change, yet, no one except for Regina realized that the change should be made “right now and right here”. And this is where an official government room with neatly set tables and chairs turned into an informal discussion where everyone could easily face each other without having any barrier and obstacles. As Ted Eytan mentioned in his blog “The patient in the room changes everything. Everything”.

Viva la Patient!

Please visit Flickr to view more picture and videos from the event.