As a patient partner, I have a voice in making improvements
Given the unfortunate state of the healthcare system (certainly in my home province, Québec), we, as patients, often feel we are at the mercy of bureaucracy, rather than in the hands of healthcare professionals. This is not a criticism of the caring people who staff medical institutions, but an indictment of the manufactured bureaucracy that prevents them from delivering the kind of care they trained for. Having a voice, however small, in making improvements is why I agreed to become a patient partner.
The first project I worked on is a virtual healthcare platform to help clinicians support and monitor their chronic pain patients while providing self-management tools. I was initially brought on to critique language, with an eye toward making the clinician-written user interface more patient-friendly. This progressed to an increased role, including formatting online library documents. I have learned a lot, both medically and graphically. It is helpful to understand the clinician’s point of view.
I appreciate how valuable virtual health care can be. My health insurance provides access to telehealth consultations which I used to resolve issues when I could not access my family doctor. Access has become increasingly difficult. At a time when we need to reduce the use of hospital emergency rooms for uncomplicated issues, more doors have closed than opened. Urgent care walk-in clinics now require an appointment; the wait can often be more than 24 hours. Family doctor appointments can be as far as six to eight weeks away, making access to urgent care, well, urgent. ERs are overcrowded; wait times can run days rather than hours.
Accessible e-health options are becoming necessary. Family doctor appointments are often just conversations – thorough physical exams, once considered routine, are largely a thing of the past, apart from a blood pressure reading and a cursory listen to heart and lungs. Conversations with a doctor can be done as easily on video as in person. If the video contact reveals a more significant issue, then referral to in-person treatment could be a next step, rather than the first step.
Questions to consider:
- How rapidly can a virtual contact be established?
- Can the system be reorganized to facilitate this kind of progression?
- Will there be sufficient resources available for the appropriate follow-up?
The best software cannot help if medically trained humans aren’t in place for follow-up. Nuance is important. AI is not the answer to everything.
Catherine Rahal, Patient Partner
Learn more about the e-Health25 Patient Partners here.
