Patient Empowerment: Small Group Discussion

Hi from the small group on patient empowerment. We are going around discussing some core principles of patient empowerment. Some issues that have come up:

• having the tools to make decisions for yourself
• having the right information to make those decisions
• owning your own health care
• patient involvement and input from the beginning of care
• education

On the issues of education and involvement, there is a lot of emphasis being placed on the self-education and self-involvement on the part of the patient. There are many good and valuable resources out there - internet, TV, etc - with which patients can educate themselves.

Discussing basic ways to implement patient empowerment. Do we need to reinvent the wheel? In many cases we do not as there are a lot of good policies out there already in existence. An emphasis on best practices could be extremely useful here.

Thoughts? Suggestions?