Innovation, Local Persistence

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Innovation is not like switching on a lightbulb for the world. Rather it’s local iterative, persistent steps. Thoughts from the Patient Experience Symposium.

Proem

As I left the Patient Experience Symposium in Boston, (Yes, an in-person conference. How weird!) I felt schizophrenic. On the one hand, has the healthcare industry progressed at all hardwiring the improvement of patient experience? On the other, OMG, so much innovation! I listened to dedicated, diehard patient experience professionals teeming with frustration at the setbacks occurring during COVID-19 days. Families excluded from the bedside; people dying alone; active, engaged, mature patient-family infrastructure canceled, dying on the vine. I also sat rapt, hearing diverse community representatives inspired by collaborative local COVID-19 problem-solving. In this episode, I will muse about healthcare innvation, while trying to stay positive.

Thanks to the Society of Participatory Medicine for subsidizing my attendance at the conference and my team, Kayla Nelson and Joey van Leeuwen, helping me make these podcasts better than they would be.

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