I'd like to congratulate the physician in question for connecting up their patients with common experiences and knowledge to share. But this is not right to fail to support some individuals who want to expand their network. The doctor should see the self interest in having such motivated and well informed patents.

This would be a great item to take up with the CMA (Canadian Medical Association). Doctors know (even if they don't act on it) that their patients are living with their symptoms, disease or condition 24/7 and 365d/yr. So the doc is involved maybe 3-4 hours max, per year. Who's the expert on what it takes to live with the symptoms and treatment?

Better care for patients can mean better connections with patients and family members dealing with similar situations. More capable patients can only mean better mentors and supporters across their networks, that just might alleviate pressures in a single practice's case load.

Thanks for this insight Annette. I'm sometimes in a position to push for such support. Your example helps me explain the case.

Cheers,
Carolyn

The old saying talk is cheap gets truer every day. Having sat through hours and hours of meeting at various level of health care ,I realized we have answers to a lot of the issues facing healthcare . I will admit one item appears to be money but it is not as big a problem as we make it. The big problem is WORDS presented but lacking people to institute changes required to use those words. AS patient advisors we run the risk of being called rebels ( or much worse) but we have the freedom to call a spade a spade but not every person around the table can be open without fear of retribution.

My point is we have a lot of answers to our problems unfortunately a lot of them are not popular answers to the burocasy some of them put their silo at risk. We could get a lot done if we could overcome the fear factor and take the WORDS and change them to ACTION

Annette

Thanks for sharing. This will be useful as a reference as part of the conference planning committee and also when attending.

Virginia

I'm delighted to have stimulated some discussion 🙂

Health as a job would be really fulfilling for some of us.

For me being involved in health care now in a wide variety of ways, is like the job I wish I had in the past. But without that past I would not be as effective now.

It's a hard choice - to settle in to a position in health care where you can make a real difference and demonstrate the value of patient contributions, or to work like the ant as part of the larger team that ensures survival of the group.

A very fanciful thought and there's room for both types, plus there are so many more people who want to get involved in improving this huge area that affects us all

thanks for this Charles - I looked at their tools and resources and they are very helpful.

I also had a chance last week to participate in a new process which HQO is using to develop user /conversation guides to complement their quality standards. It focuses on the emotional journey that patients go through the various stages of their treatments. It was a good process and while it is just a pilot, the staff did a great job of facilitating the process and I am interested to see what results. This was for low back pain

Thanks, Claudia. Transitions is such a hot topic it is good to see what work is being done in this area. Cheers! Alies

Congratulations Virginia

I applied and had no rejection letter, but I doubt I will be invited since they had all day Friday.

It's great that 3 PAN members will be there!!

Annette

Ah, I guess I misunderstood. When you wrote that you had been "offered a spot in the program," I took that to mean that you were presenting something. Sorry. I understand now that you meant your application had been accepted 🙂

Being in Quebec, the article interested me. It appeared to be from 2016 and I'm curious to know what has transpired since.

I am the patient representative with a research team regarding healthcare workplace injuries and barriers for safe handling practices and changing culture, Workplace injuries are not only about the person who gets injured but how management handle these. I am happy with the way this research is heading, even tough we are only in the early stages. Having the patient perspective a the table has helped guide the direction of the research, also by being present this has made me aware there are people in positions of influence who care and like to see changes.

Workplace injury has changed my life and left me living with a chronic illness, happy to see this as part of the research they are presently looking into.

Virginia