This interview is the fifth in a series of brief chats between CFAH president and founder, Jessie Gruman, and experts—our CFAH William Ziff Fellows—who have devoted their careers to understanding and encouraging people’s engagement in their health and health care.
Kate Lorig is concerned that “There are so many health messages – many of which are contradictory – people just throw up their hands and do nothing.”
Dr. Lorig is a Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center where she has developed and evaluated community-based patient education programs in English and Spanish for people with chronic conditions including arthritis, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes and AIDS. She is a CFAH William Ziff Fellow.
Gruman: What is the biggest challenge you think people now face when thinking about their health and care?
Lorig: Uncertainty. Uncertainty. Uncertainty. Uncertainty about who is going to pay for care? Uncertainty about whether I will have to find a new doctor. Can I find a new one? Will I have to pay more? (This scares me.) There is a real feeling of panic and anxiety out there.
Gruman: How about a challenge people face in making good use of their care?
Lorig: Health care is very difficult to access – and then once you access it, it is frightening, confusing and not in the least supportive. People are left to their own devices. Kaiser is good, but let’s face it, only 8 million Americans are members.
Gruman: And what about the challenge people face in caring for themselves?
Lorig: Somehow we need to be more careful and mindful about the messages the media put out on health. There are so many health messages – many of which are contradictory – people just throw up their hands and do nothing.
Think about all those competing organizations and competing messages—every not-for-profit, for profit, government and local health department is trying to distinguish itself, send out branded health messages—for example, “Take 10,000 steps” or “No more food nutrition pyramid! Now we have a plate!”
Just what are we supposed to do with all this?
Additional Interviews with our Ziff Fellows on the challenges of patient engagement:
- Trudy Lieberman, journalist for more than 40 years and contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review
- Dale Shaller, Principal of Shaller Consulting Group
- Connie Davis, geriatric nurse practitioner and health care consultant
- Molly Mettler, Senior Vice President for Healthwise
- David Sobel, Medical Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for The Permanente Medical Group
- Shoshanna Sofaer, Robert P. Luciano Professor of Health Care Policy at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College
- Judith Hibbard, Professor of Health Policy at University of Oregon & lead author of the Patient Activation Measure (PAM)
- Carol Alter, Director of Policy and Community Outreach and an Associate Professor in the Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry
Tags: CFAH William Ziff Fellows, patient engagement
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