WIHI: The Patient Activist

Date: December 16, 2010
 
Featuring:

• Bill Thatcher, Executive Director, Cautious Patient Foundation
• Barbara Balik, RN, EdD, Senior Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Tricia Pil, MD, Pediatrician, Medical Writer, University Health Sciences Project Coordinator, Patient Activist
• Charles Maclean, PhD, Founder, PhilanthropyNow

 
The activated patient and family member – often seeking to ensure that whatever “bad” thing happened to them doesn’t happen to anyone else – is, thankfully, no longer a new phenomenon. Today in the US, hundreds of organizations of all sizes and reach are gaining a voice and the expertise to help solve some of health care’s most intractable quality and safety problems. The rapid growth of patient advisory councils is just the latest example of patients becoming an integral and integrated force in the redesign of care.
 
On December 5, 2010, thanks to the generosity of the Cautious Patient Foundation and others, some 50 patient leaders gathered at IHI’s Annual National Forum to consider their work to date and how, by combining forces, they can be an even more effective force for change. This WIHI shares the energy and discussion from the Leadership Summit for Patient Activists and Partners in Quality and Safety, featuring four people whose work has been crucial to laying the foundation for a new era of patient activism.
 
We’re all patients at some point, and that common experience – and sometimes unfortunate experience – is what’s bringing physicians, researchers, lawyers, parents, and every combination you can think of together to compare notes and plan for the hard work ahead.