This year’s NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo was held at the sympathetically converted former train station Manchester Central and felt more like a festival than a trade show. Volunteers […]
Patient and public perspectives
Robin E Moulder: The role of patient engagement in error prevention
Imagine being told you have a devastating illness, only to find out months later it was a mistake? Medical diagnostic errors are profoundly damaging to the patient, the clinician, and […]
Tessa Richards: Access to health records—patients first
Criticism of the government’s plan to collect data from patients’ medical records to build a new NHS database—care.data—has been fast and furious. With data collection postponed amid public concern about […]
Kate Granger: Why compassionate care is so important
Having terminal cancer is rubbish. There is no way of getting around that fact. I’ve just spent nearly a week in hospital feeling exceptionally unwell and at times wondering whether […]
“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart: 15 year old’s video raises the question—who gets to say what “patient centred” is?
An impromptu in hospital video by a 15 year old took healthcare social media by storm last week. Posted on Forbes.com on Thursday, by the evening it was in the […]
Tessa Richards: The rise and reach of expert patients
In the Victorian era the patients who acquired public profiles tended to be doubly disadvantaged. Think Joseph Merrick. His fame as the “Elephant Man” stemmed from others exploiting his disfiguring […]
Carolyn Thomas: Why physicians must stop saying: “we are all patients”
While noodling around on Linked In one day, I was pleased to notice that the professional networking site has some member groups discussing patient engagement. I’m a heart attack survivor, […]
Tessa Richards: Lifting the lid on information and learning from it
Progress. The march towards giving patients online access to their medical records is accelerating. The Society of Participatory Medicine has put out the bunting in welcome to the announcement by […]
Tessa Richards: How can we get better at listening?
Reports urging health professionals to listen to patients and use their experience to improve the quality, value, and safety of healthcare have been flowing thick and fast. Last week another […]
Tessa Richards: Stop pushing propaganda to patients
There is something to be said for wearing your heart on your sleeve, and few do it to greater effect than Margaret McCartney, a GP in Glasgow. She exuded frustration […]