Don’t worry – I promise MedX will stay in sunny and amazing Northern Cali!
Since I’ve returned from MedX, I have presented information on and from the conference to people in quality, patient experience, and the docs I work with here at the University of Wisconsin.
The first presentation didn’t go as well as I had hoped just because I wasn’t prepared for some of the questions. On the other hand, I know I’ve made an ally in one person involved in patient experience due to her personal life living with a chronically ill partner. We commiserated on unkind doctors, lack of emotional support, and more. I even brought up #ChronicSex which she was pretty stoked about.
Side note: they’re hiring for her boss so if you’re interested, hit me up.
I’ve been asked to write something up for the healthcare wide internal communication here, which is pretty badass.
Perhaps the most rewarding thing was to speak to the docs I work with about all this. Very few of them knew previously how active I’ve been in health activism and, I think, it was refreshing for them to know they have patients on their side.
I discussed handing out resources for patients and brought up tags on social media that are well known and not always illness specific like #ChronicLife. I brought up connecting new patients with local chapters of national disease orgs like the Arthritis Foundation – something that seemed pretty well received by my local AF peeps and our docs. I even brought up this idea that came from my group in the Designing for Behavior Change workshop on some way to certify patients in their illness as well as mentoring/leadership so you always have a local patient that might be able to help others.
I’ve never seen a room so awestruck before over me as these docs I work with every day.
It was awesome.
The organization-wide stuff will take a while to get going, to push through, and it’ll take more allies. It seems, though, that my docs and the clinic managers really are embracing some of these ideas.
I can’t wait to see what the future brings.