Creating a Partnership Model for Health Education and Health Care

Presenters
Eleanor M. Vogt, R.Ph., Ph.D., National Pharmaceutical Council, Inc.
James R. Kuperberg, Ph.D., Kuperberg Consulting Group

STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT
We are experiencing a fundamental shift in our understanding of the nature of learning, and we are just beginning to discern the possibilities this awareness can bring to the process of healing and the creation of health. This understanding, coupled with our advancing capabilities in global networked information and communication, is transforming the very nature of the health partnership. The impact will be palpable and measurable throughout the system, from the individual consumer/patient and provider to the large volume purchaser and payer.

KEY ISSUES, INCLUDING THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY
Forces at both the individual consumer and marketplace levels driving the evolutionary next step in the health partnership model include: increasing awareness of the interactive nature of the learning and healing process; the democratization of knowledge; increasing access to and networking with other ways of "knowing" (knowledge bases apart from Western thought); the recognition of health determinants outside the medical model; fully integrated and networked approaches to care at the patient level (body, mind, and spirit) and at the system level (provider, institution, and community).

ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND PRIORITIES OF KEY SECTORS
Individual consumers of care have the right and the responsibility to be active partners in their care and their healing, and to identify their needs, create their goals, bring their resources to the forefront, and actively participate in the decisionmaking and evaluation of both the caring and the healing process. Health learning is an interactive process using cascades of information, skills, and resources customized for the individual, while allowing freedom of choice on how to act on that learning. Networked health information and services are key and serve as essential tools for consumers to be active partners in their care and healing.

Practitioners of care are slowly becoming aware of the need, although many still lack the skills, to share health care information and decisionmaking with the patient/consumer. In addition to educating themselves, they are part of a system of resources, power, social and organization structures that still serve to restrict consumer and patient access to information and restrict the individual's ability to learn and make informed choices. Networked health information is rapidly bypassing these industrial age structures and strictures. Practitioners vested in these decaying models will soon be facing some difficult choices.

Payers of care are fueling the information revolution. An informed payer--and player--is essential for economical survival in the health care market place. As a result of their increasing demand for improved economic and clinical outcome measures, the development of new learning tools and accessible information technologies is accelerating rapidly. While there is growing apprehension about the growing involvement of payers (public or private) in the design/delivery and evaluation of health care, these same payers are assuming a key role in developing health learning resources and driving the demand for an educated partnership.

NEXT STEPS
Consumer health learning and patient empowerment form the foundation critical to optimal health in 21st century society. Yet individuals often lack confidence in their own ability to be involved in health self-care and there is inadequate communication and cooperation among payers, providers, and consumers of care. Many organizations and individuals have not yet created their own inspiring visions for health or lack the self-confidence and support to pursue creating their vision.

Having a shared vision held by all the stakeholders (partners) in a community or organization is the next step for accelerating better consumer health learning. Visions invite us to say what we want to create--they stretch us beyond what we have now, beyond what is possible now, to the best that could be. The power of a shared vision enables us to change faster than we normally think possible. The failure to articulate our vision is one factor that has led us to the system we now have.

Steps to get started: 1) Create descriptions of a preferred health care system that facilitates and enhances consumer health learning. What is the best model/system you can envision for the year 2020? 2) Distinguish between your aspirations (which can be represented by vision) and circumstances (which represent reality). Compare your vision with other visions. 3) Identify current trends that serve to enhance these vision descriptions, as well as barriers that work against them. 4) Develop action steps that your group could take to enhance the trends that serve your vision and eliminate the barriers that work against your vision. NOW YOU HAVE AN ACTION PLAN.