Simon D
public engagement
Patient engagement must become more meaningful
Like most doctors, I can remember the first time one of my patients walked into my office with a stack of printed papers in her hands and a long list of questions—all derived from the newly emerging world of the Internet. Managing these types of interactions could feel daunting and even a little threatening but …
Patient engagement in health care: the emperor has no clothes
“We have created an [engagement] industry that is self-serving, one that produces minimal or unsurprising output, by co-opting people into, and taming data to fit, institutional structures. We can shift the structures as much as we like, but it won’t change anything unless we find a new way of doing things…” So wrote David Gilbert …
It’s time to put the patient in Queen’s Park
As dedicated patient experts we welcome Ontario Premier Wynne’s Mandate Letter to Health Minister Eric Hoskins. We are encouraged that in an interview with the Globe and Mail Minister Hoskins committed himself to “improving the patient experience” and the Mandate letter leads with a priority to “Putting Patients at the Centre”. In our many patient roles, …
The public should have a major role in deciding funding for large clinical trials
A dispute between some researchers and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR – Canada’s largest health research granting agency) about how many large clinical trials should be funded by the CIHR has recently gone public. The scientists believe that more large clinical trials should be funded in Canada, and they should decide which ones. …
Discussion of health care reform is too often confined to our bubble
If you regularly peruse the pages of Healthy Debate, you’re in the bubble; one could call you an ‘insider’. If you’ve heard of the Canadian Institute of Health Information or Health Quality Ontario, or if you scan the news for columns by André Picard, Kelly Grant or Tom Blackwell, then you are an insider. Do you ever tune into White Coat Black Art, …
Should the public have a greater say in health care decision making?
I am a born and raised Canadian now living and working in the UK. Having been in the UK for over two years, I tend to draw comparisons between the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and the Canadian health system. Before I start here with my commentary, I want to point out that, despite its …