“I want to explain to you in the next few minutes that I am part of the solution, not necessarily just a problem.” conference.
He was representing the voice of the patients in the session, from ‘from patient engagement to patient empowerment’, a panel of experts discussed how citizens could be more involved in digital health changes.
The speaker was: Dr. Cave Savvi, Senior Managing Director, Consulting Global Health, Extense, USA; The head of the patient engagement in the Begona Nier, Research and Innovation Group, Children’s Hospital San Joan de Deu, Barcelona, Spain; Graham Prestwich, Public and Patient Engagement Lead, Yorkshire and Hamber Academic Health Science Network, UK; Dr. Anne Snowden, Director of Clinical Research, HIMSS Analytics, Canada.
“The current situation of cases makes people feel that things are deteriorating rather than getting better,” Prestvick said. “People who are disabled things are not looking good and the possibility of being able to contribute to their own good is not going forward.”
When it comes to designing healthcare solutions, Prestvik said that it was important to include patients who represent target audiences and ensure that they were involved in creating a clear definition of solving the problem.
“Many people use patients instead of working with patients,” they concluded. “If I am in it, I think you are doing things with me instead of me.”
Acquire
Although the telehaalth was bounced during the epidemic, other forms of the digital tool were dropped after 2018, according to this Executive Research In eight countries.
“As we see the adoption of technology by citizens over the years, starting from 2018 we know that adoption speed – which was moving well and brought a lot of money and innovation behind it – Actually started for the plateau, “Dr. Kev Safavi, Senior Managing Director, Consulting Global Health, Accenture.
Virtual health visits were the only exceptions to this, it was impossible to see doctors face to face due to forced adoption during epidemics.
“It was striking for us that we were looking at digital technologies, wearers and a recession like adopting apps in the time period,” Dr. Safavi said.
Research showed that it was partly due to lack of patient trust. Although healthcare providers were given status as the most reliable institutions to give people their data, all stakeholders have declined since the belief.
“If they do not believe that they are not ready to engage in the system,” Dr. Safavi continued. “One can argue that the epidemic has not made the awareness of the people more that their healthcare data is available and it can be used by others.”
To remove this issue, Dr. Safevi said it was important that innovators only consider more than the functionality and efficacy of digital tools.
“We see a lot of innovation around the value of the digital tool as measured by their primary purpose, which is engagement or efficacy,” Dr. Safavi said. “But if we want to make our investment worthwhile, we need to incorporate to our attention that it does not work, but will anyone care about?”
To restore public belief, he said “it was necessary to establish clear transparency around the coupled information with behavior that could suit you the way you keep yourself.”
Include young generation
An excellent example of patient empowerment comes from San Jone de Deu Barcelona Children Hospital in Spain. The head of the patient engagement in the research and innovation group, Begona Nafria, prepared an ongoing initiative to include children and youth in decision making in the hospital.
The young person’s advisory group, Kids Barcelona, was established in 2015 and currently there are 20 members of which 80% are patients and 20% are from the local community. Meetings are held every month, on which members can contribute to their opinion about projects in the hospital.
“We are a patient-focused institute because we believe that the only way for our services in healthcare is to work with patients and their families,” Nafria said. “We include them in research and innovation because we want them to be partners.”
Children and youth also join the co-design of medical equipment, get training about their data rights through gaming, and are educated in the development of clinical trials.
“We need to change the entire mentality of solutions because we are based on knowing that specialist is doctor and medical staff, and the children and their families are not at the same level,” said Nafriya. “We need to work and work together with patients.”
