Great read.

I believe that the empowered patient, one who feels like she has a stake in decision-making and fully understands the implications of her lifestyle and medical decisions, will ultimately become the “best patient”. These empowered patients, one would assume, would feel less like a “victim” of her medical issues and more like a partner, in which case her partner (in this instance, the physician), has a wealth of knowledge from which to draw upon. In turn, this patient helps the physician and research scientists. A patient who is an active participant will likely be more open and put forth more voluntary data, which in turn, would presumably lead to a higher level of precision medicine for that patient and also contribute to that particular field of medicine.

The latter point, regarding the physician using the resources of that “active patient”, I believe is an important one. As a cancer patient with other autoimmune complexities, I would rather see my partnership with my physician yield a higher, or more precise, level of care (to me as an individual patient), over a reduction in premium costs. As you mentioned, this is predicated on a significant level of trust between both parties, and importantly, empathy on behalf of the physician. Recently a friend described her physician as “always having one hand on the door knob”.

I believe presenting a “Patient Oath”, would get a significant response from patients who engaged with digital health technology or even simple patient portals.

If patients take an oath and become more active participants in their own health care, the nature of the change of the relationship between the provider and the patient remains an unanswered question — but in the least, a higher degree of partnership is necessary. Are physicians ready to accept the responsibility of having an active patient, who has more knowledge, asks more questions, and requires more time? I would be keen to see the outcomes.

Thank you for the thought-provoking piece.