Patient Empowerment Principles: Share Your Story

The final patient empowerment principles identified and reviewed by the meeting participants follow:

Create an individual sense of ownership and responsibility for health and wellness.

The healthcare system continues to move further away from the concept of individual ownership and responsibility. A reformed health system must center on the individual and as an active participant in his/her healthcare. This can be achieved through access to information, novel use of technologies, and a healthcare system that incentivizes proactive individuals in the context of their family and/or community.

To empower patients, we must:    

• Integrate health education at every life stage and every stage of medical care
  
• Encourage a team‐based approach to healthcare with valued provider‐patient time
  
• Incentivize wellness and individuals’ proactive engagement in his/her own health
  
• Take advantage of new technologies, personalized medicine, and family history to concretely connect an individual to his/her own health
  
• Educate the general public about the value of clinical trials in an effort to improve engagement, recruitment, and retention efforts
  
• Provide individuals with access and clear understanding of their medical records
  

Please share your real-life examples of these principles in the comments section below or email them to healthreform@geneticalliance.org.