Doctors generally know about patient safety, how to undertake safe procedures or recognise unsafe practice and many doctors raise concerns over unsafe environments. It is important to doctors that they can offer safe and effective evidence based care. I have never really doubted that hospitals were a safe place, even if the care that was […]
Category: Patient perspectives
Jane Feinmann: Taking complaints seriously
I’m at my GP surgery on the point of becoming a nuisance patient—it seems I have all the qualifications. Five years ago I was discharged from hospital after a medical mishap, serious enough to have my family gather at my bedside. I’ve tried and failed to get a full explanation of what went wrong. Now, […]
“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart: “My Health: Upgraded” is a clear vision from a young futurist
In my work to understand how medicine saved me from Stage IV renal cell carcinoma in 2007, yet so often falls catastrophically short, I’ve looked for causes of both success and shortfall. More than anything, I’ve seen that “the progress of progress” depends on whether we correctly see, or fail to see, the latest and […]
Ceinwen Giles: The puzzle of co-production with patients
The NHS Health and Care Expo, held in Manchester last week, aims to be a leading event in healthcare. Although it primarily features speakers from across the health, voluntary, and private sectors, the Expo also had a number of patient-led sessions within its “Pop-Up University.” On day 1 of the Expo, I led a pop-up […]
Mike Kendall: What do the new NICE guidelines mean for people living with type 1 diabetes?
As a patient involved in the development process, I hope that these guidelines for Type 1 diabetes in adults have a powerful, positive effect on the lives of many living with type 1 diabetes in the UK. The guideline acknowledges how infuriatingly individual and fickle type 1 diabetes can be for each person, and how […]
A patient’s perspective: Dancing the dance
If I don’t dance to the tune of the care system I don’t get the care I need to survive. I need medicines and other stuff to live well, in fact to stay alive. You, the nurse or the doctor, are the only ones who can give me those things; so I play your game. […]
Jonathon Hope: What happens when doctors don’t know best?
A recent story of how a teenage cancer patient’s online research of symptoms was dismissed by doctors before death raises the question of where patients go to get information when the system fails to deliver. Modern medical treatments, especially for LTC’s (Long Term Conditions), can lead to a devastating, often unrecognised, or untreated symptom burden […]
Lyndal Trevena: What’s happening on Day 1 of #ISDMISEHC Sydney 2015
The first day of ISDMISEHC is over and synthesising the issues from the Twitter feed and presentations today is quite a challenge. Given that 300 people are exchanging ideas and experiences from all over the world we really want to share this with a wider audience. In addition, our conference delegates are struggling with trying […]
Lyndal Trevena: Bringing evidence based practice and shared decision making together
As I write this blog, research teams from the four corners of the globe are travelling to Sydney for the first joint conference of the International Shared Decision Making (ISDM) group and the International Society for Evidence Based Health Care (ISEHC). There are over 300 delegates from more than 25 countries and a large contingent […]
Amy Price and Marilyn Mann on the pros of patient peer review
Without peer review The BMJ could not survive. The journal uses reviewers to help assess the quality and usefulness of about 8000 papers per year. In early 2014, as one of a number of changes designed to make the journal more patient-centered, The BMJ announced that it would recruit patients to […]