George Washington University Blog Features Emily’s Entourage TEDMED Great Challenges Discussion

Emily’s Entourage was thrilled to be featured in a blog post recapping Emily’s recent TEDMED Great Challenges discussion. The post enables Emily and her fellow panelists’ to share their important message about how to best cultivate and assess patient engagement with a greater audience, and we are excited to share it with you here!

Below is a guest blog post from Emily Newhook, community relations manager for the Executive Master of Health Administration program at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University, explaining why this discussion was spotlighted on the MHA@GW blog.

How can engaged patients improve health care? Emily Kramer-Golinkoff and other expert panelists tackled the question during a recent TEDMED Great Challenges discussion, “Examining the Case for Patient Activation Measures.”

Research indicates clinical sites using the Patient Activation Measure (PAM)—a tool developed by researchers at the University of Oregon to measure patients’ knowledge, skills and confidence for managing their health—see $260 to $3,700 annual per patient savings.

But the benefits extend far beyond the scope of revenue reports. Informed patient engagement also promotes better communication between patients and providers. This is especially important for patients managing chronic illnesses.

Emily noted that providers seeking to improve care using the PAM need to account for patients’ lives outside of the doctor’s office: “What is most important for my engagement is having a team that has a really holistic view of me – not just as a patient, but as a person.”

Sustainable patient engagement is increasingly important to health care providers and administrators. With this in mind, MHA@GW, the executive MHA program at The George Washington University, created a summary of the exciting discussion. To read the full summary on the MHA@GW blog, visit: http://mha.gwu.edu/tedmed-greatchallenges-patient-activation/