If you want to know why empowering patients is more than just jargon, read this article by Matthew Holt and the blog post he describes by Regina Holliday.
It's moving when you come face-to-face with the frustration and anger of patients as they struggle to gather personal information from hospitals, doctors and insurers. Of course, we've grown used to patients doing their own research online. But when the wife of a cancer victim says: "the worst thing we experienced was lack of access to my husband's data " it means that we've reached another level. Patients are no longer voicing general concerns about the state of healthcare. Instead it's clear that they now understand the problem created by poorly integrated digital records and the lack of interoperability between existing systems.
Whenever I try to explain patient empowerment, and the challenge that faces us in the coming years, I'll be using this example. I hope you can do the same.
This article, while very disturbing, inspires me to do better.
What I do could make a real difference to real people.