On October 8, Ted Eytan posted an entry on his blog, called: “When physicians are ready to promote patient empowerment / engagement, what do we want them to do?“.

In his writing he said, that “the majority of my writing here points to the idea that physicians are very interested in empowering patients, because they want to perform well for them.”

I couldn’t resist to write a reaction: “Although I’m convinced that was not your intention, this sounds very patronizing. I think it asks for a definition of patient empowerment. Please read my article on “Patient 2.0 Empowerment“.”

Ted then reacted with the question how I would phrase it. This was my answer: “Would you have written: “because they want to perform well for them in active cooperation with them” or something in that sense, it would have been much more towards what I think patient empowerment is all about.”

And since that moment a very interesting discussion started. The most exciting, in my view, outcome is that there will be a Society and Journal of Participatory Medicine.

Have a look at the complete discussion, it is definitely worth reading!

Lodewijk Bos

13 October 2008 | Categories: Blog.
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