Porto EHMA meet: Group discussion report
After Marius Buiting’s presentation (see attachment for slides), the participants were places in subgroups to discuss the following case: which examples of emergent practices do you see currently in your own country? And what can you tell about the pattern shifts that are underneath these developments?
In the feedback of the small group work we detected six pattern-shifts:
1. Informal care and inviting communities
- From thinking in terms of ‘illness’ to ‘healthy living’. This includes coping strategies for people with chronic conditions (Machteld Huber: redefining health care definition WHO).
- Public health is no longer seen as core responsibility of the health care industry, but as a shared duty in society, where everyone is invited to contribute.
2. Using the power of complementary knowledge areas, co-creation and togetherness
- Professionals (diagnostics, prescribers) in the role of coach and those who have a chronic condition as experts in diagnosing and intervention.
- Realistic evaluation instead of the usual controlled test situation: to observe patients in their specific living situation. Real context included as part of evaluation.
3. From data protection to open data
- Gathering patient data makes it possible to anticipate future events more proactive.
- Web portals: (former) patients as coach
- Group consults where you not only learn from the healthcare professional, but also from the patient’s experience.
4. Growth of home visits of healthcare professionals working in institutes
- Beating the paradox: care is increasingly organized in patients’ own living situation, but professionals still remained in their offices.
Two more general observations were made:
- When you invent new models of healthcare, you also have to find new (creative) business models ‘allowed’ by government, science and professionals educators. The sociological/organizational innovation requests a different way of clinical and organizational governance. Paradigms from education, science and law block in many cases these developments, because they are stuck to old paradigms.
- Whereas in modern societies national healthcare programmes has brought many value to the citizens, it also made health care and arena for political disputes, cost-containment and a passive citizen that thinks in terms of ‘consumer rights’. What can we get? There is a big need for a more participative society where people are invited to co-create added value for their own sake and the sake of their beloved ones and fellow citizens. What can we bring?
This is a big paradox, especially if the vision of (political) leaders gives a double bind message: if you vote for us we want to take care for everything, and at the same time we can’t afford the burden of modern healthcare in terms of costs to society.