President's Letter
Dear Colleagues, Since it was founded in 1992, the Center for Advancing Health has aimed to increase people's involvement in their health and health care.
While advances in knowledge about disease have been responsible for steady increases in the length and quality of life of Americans, the potential of health care to improve individual and population health rests increasingly in the hands of individuals. Whether we are sick or well, we will not benefit from the expertise of health professionals and the technologies they deploy unless we participate actively and knowledgably in our own care.
The stakes for each of us — and the nation — are high: our lack of participation contributes to preventable illness, complications and death, wastes precious health care resources, and disproportionately erodes the health of those of us who are unable to participate effectively in our care.
What can be done to ensure that all Americans are able to act effectively on their own behalf? And how will we help those who lack the skills, resources or understanding, or who are already ill compensate for their inability to do so? Our current activities are directed toward addressing these questions.
The Engagement Behavior Framework is a comprehensive list of the actions each person must now take to benefit from their care. It serves as a specific and demanding roadmap for our work. Our aim is to ensure that every adult in the US has the knowledge, skills and opportunity to perform each of these behaviors. To this end, during 2010, we will:
Publish a “snapshot” of the extent to which people currently perform these actions. This rough epidemiology of engagement in health care is based on surveys sponsored by the federal government and foundations and provides a rough estimate of the size and scope of the challenge.
Launch the Prepared Patient Forum (www.preparedpateintforum.org), a new interactive Website designed to make the CFAH’s original health news stories and patient resources available directly to the public. This site will also serve as a gathering place for patient activists and advocates working to increase people’s participation in their care.
Release a series of reports entitled “What it Takes…” that review the literature to document the challenges individuals face in finding and using safe, decent health care.
We will continue to advocate for public and private policies that support the active, effective participation by individuals in their care and to produce and disseminate to the news media new stories on the latest research relevant to individuals’ engagement in their care.
We welcome your interest in our work and hope we can persuade you to join us in our efforts to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to act in ways that help them live for as well and as long as they can.
Sincerely,
Jessie C. Gruman, Ph.D.
President
Center for Advancing Health
