Kate Christenson, MD, with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, stopped by the booth Monday at HIMSS. We were able to steal a few minutes with Kate to hear about one of her passions: patient empowerment.
CTH Blog:
Tell us about patient empowerment.
Kate Christensen:
What patient empowerment looks like from the patient’s perspective is being able to get my health care business done when I have time to do it. It’s very task oriented. I want to contact my doctor by email or phone, make an appointment, refill my medication, check on some test results, and go.
That kind of connection and access to the doctor’s office, to the health plan, to their record, is just the substrate. It’s the beginning for really building patient engagement and patient empowerment. From there, you connect them to learning resources. So I’m not just looking at my test results, I’m learning what the test result means – and what it means to me – in a very teachable moment. I might want to Google the term and really learn. And the third step is taking action. We’ve connected the patient with their data, they’ve learned some, and now we want to offer them the ability to take action. So a lab test shows that your diabetes could be better controlled. You want to take action. Here’s a weight management program. Here’s a diabetes program. Here’s something you can do on your own time, at your own convenience, and it has actually been proven to make a difference.
Ultimately, we are all patients, so patient empowerment will look like something we all want — complete, open and transparent access to our data when we want it, and when we need it, to be able to get all of our health tasks done. At the same time, we’re talking about things like web visits with our physicians – anything that will add to my convenience, my empowerment and my knowledge for myself and my family.
CTH Blog:
Is patient empowerment a key topic at this year’s HIMSS conference?
KC:
On Tuesday [today], there is an entire day-long session dedicated to patient engagement at HIMSS. I’ll be presiding over that session, but there are a number of speakers talking about the different aspects of patient engagement. We’ll have a patient advocate on hand. Artist Regina Holliday will be painting her impressions of the session and presenting us with the painting at the very end. She’s bringing the patient voice and vision into the session.
