Community Engagement — Harmonizing to the Same Tune

Dr. Kirsten Meisenger from the Cambridge Health Alliance engages long-standing community partners in telehealth usability with joy and grace. Deep.

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Lately the industry chatter about patient engagement has increased. Clients ask me to advise about patient engagement. What is patient engagement? How can we increase patient engagement? Is patient engagement worth it? Where do we find people to engage? What’s the business case for engagement? As time passes, my thoughts and advice change, and, frankly, I find myself at a loss to advise, even though I say patient engagement is my passion. Engagement from whose point of view, to what purpose?

A person engaged in their health — Isn’t everyone engaged in their health? My symptoms affect me. I’m in pain. I can’t function as I’d like to. I’m sad. I’m anxious. I react. I manage, or I don’t. I can accept, deny, adapt. I suffer, I advocate, I overcome. Maybe it’s my parent’s health or my partner’s or my child’s. It’s all engagement. I’m engaged in my health.

A clinician engages in their patients’ health. My neurologist said he’s an expert in what works related to treatments and therapeutics for populations of people with Multiple Sclerosis, but he doesn’t know crap about me and my life. He wants to learn about what’s important to me…