Reflections on the patient experience (after Gel Health)

I'm just catching my breath after running the first Gel Health conference last week in New York - a unique two-day event exploring "the patient experience."

The event was a success, and there's a lot I could say about what I learned and experienced there. But I'll just share some scattered thoughts.

We can fix healthcare.

I was struck by the number of real-world solutions we learned about. Improving the patient experience isn't something we need to wait for - it's happening RIGHT NOW, and has been for years, and we can learn from what's working:

• Dr. Bridget Duffy spoke about Code Lavender - where it came from, what it means to her, and how it works in several major hospitals. Living proof that the system can change - we can make improvements.

• Medical errors (described well by patient advocate Dan Ford) are getting better response, said Dr. Sigall Bell, and she has the data to show the advances.

• Pediatric wards all over the world are getting the gift of laughter, via Clown Care - we heard from founder Dr. Michael Christensen how subversion, risk, and improvisation played into the beginnings of the program almost 20 years ago (and continue today).

• Dr. John La Puma teaches and advocates, through ChefMD, better health through nutrition, especially where simple, healthy food can replace more expensive drugs.

• Bill Brownstein at Kids RX is running a pharmacy that listens to customers - answers the phone before the second ring - makes friendly deliveries - and still is in business. Serving the patient, it turns out, is good business.

• The cancer center at Johns Hopkins - working with Performance of a Lifetime - is changing the culture, actually making real-world improvements, to the day-to-day experience for oncology nurses (maybe the toughest job in the world), thus improving the care given to patients.

There is hope.

The theme of "hope" kept popping up throughout the event - organically - again and again. Dr. Mark Pochapin talked about why he never tells a cancer patient "you have x months to live," because there's always hope. He brought a former patient, pancreatic cancer survivor, to the stage to prove the point. She just turned 90.

Dr. Robert Martensen talked about dying with dignity - and what it means particularly for older women, who tend to outlive their husbands.

Olie Westheimer talked about a unique program that partners Parkinson's patients with a modern dance company. In the video she showed, patients who are facing this devastating disease talked about the hope and joy the program gives them.

A good first step is to acknowledge the other.

Bridget Duffy began the day by talking about how invisible she felt when she was in a wheelchair after an accident earlier this year.

Later, Dr. Javette Orgain took us through the day-to-day life of doctors in inner-city community health centers in Chicago.

Dr. Jim Withers gave a moving presentation about caring for the chronic homeless in Pittsburgh (and founding a worldwide "street medicine" movement). And the day finished with Daniel & Ken Trush, who run a music foundation for disabled people.

Attendees say it better than I do.

Several attendees have shared how they'd describe Gel Health; here are just three I thought encapsulated it well:

• "A place to be re-energized about the possibilities of what patient-centric healthcare delivery would and could look like, through real-life examples."

• "This is the only healthcare conference I know where the focus is on real people's needs and how they've been met. It doesn't lead with a technology solution."

• "A unique conference highlighting inspirational stories by thought provoking speakers who shared their ideas (and how they made them reality!) for creating positive experiences for various healthcare stakeholders."

Thanks again to everyone who was there.

For everyone else - I hope this gives some sense of the great progress quietly being made in healthcare, and what the real possibilities are for future transformatian.

For anyone who wants to vote for a "next year," I've put up a temporary discount (thru Friday) on Gel Health 2010 tickets. Click here to sign up.

I do hope to start posting videos within a few weeks on
Gel Videos - stay tuned (and meantime, watch a few!)

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• Oct 28, 2009
• IN: Gel
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