Stream: patient empowerment
Topic: World Bank's definition of empowerment
Dave deBronkart (Nov 23 2018 at 16:54):
I want to institutionalize here the definition of empowerment that I use. I hope all here can see how giving patients unlimited access to data will support empowering them (the access alone will not empower, but will support it), and how the current state (near-zero access) is explicitly DISempowering.
I first encountered this definition when I spoke in 2013 at the World Parkinson Congress in Montreal. A previous speaker, Fulvio Capitanio, had used it. I'll break it into several lines, as I do in my slides, to help people more clearly parse it.
Empowerment is increasing the capacity
of individuals and groups
to make choices
and transform those choices
into desired actions and outcomes
Source: World Bank's PovertyNet
A related sentence, apparently no longer on a web page but on page 30 of this World Bank PDF, is:
An empowering approach to participation
treats poor people as co-producers <== substitute "patients" for "poor people"
with authority and control
over decisions and resources
devolved to the lowest appropriate level.
Clearly healthcare today is FAR from having an empowering approach to participation ... "patient engagement" is often discussed by hospitals and companies as if it meant "getting patients to do as they're told," precisely the opposite of co-producers.
As I said at the top, I hope this makes clear how vitally important I think this issue is.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
