Tag: Center for Advancing Health

Physician Executives Should Support Patient Engagement/Activation

Kent Bottles

Posted 10/18/11 on Kent Bottles MD Private Views

The doctor/patient relationship is certainly changing and evolving. A term I hear a lot today is:“patient engagement/activation.” Why is this concept so important and what does it mean? What can physician executives do to make it easier for our patients to become engaged and activated?

Judith Hibbard has pioneered the study of patient engagement, and she noted that one needs knowledge, skills, and emotional support to actively engage in one’s health care. She identified four behaviors associated with engagement and activation:

  1. Self management
  2. Collaboration with provider
  3. Maintaining function/preventing declines
  4. Access to appropriate and high quality care

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Are We All Ready for Do-It-Yourself Health Care?

Jessie Gruman, PhD

First published 4/06/11 on the Center for Advancing Health blog.

The outsourcing of work by businesses to the cheapest available workers has received a lot of attention in recent years.  It has largely escaped notice, however, that the new labor force isn’t necessarily located in Southeast Asia, but is often found here at home and is virtually free.  It is us, using our laptops and smart phones to perform more and more functions once carried out by knowledgeable salespeople and service reps.

This was particularly salient to me this week: I spent an hour online browsing, comparing prices, reading customer reviews and filling out the required billing and shipping information to get a great deal on a new lamp.  An airline would charge me 99 cents to talk to a person but provides information for free online.  Calls to Amtrak to make train reservations are routinely answered with a message that the wait to talk to an agent is 30 minutes, but that I can book travel myself – plus get better deals – if I do it online.  My bank has a small staff, limited hours and it charges extra for paper checks and mailed hard copy statements… but its Website is welcoming and useful, even at 3 a.m.

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