‘CT Partners for Health’ to Host First Patient Engagement Conference in Connecticut

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“Patients perform better when they are informed better,” says Dave deBronkart, keynote speaker and international patient engagement spokesman.

Wethersfield, Conn (PRWEB) July 31, 2013

“Patients perform better when they are informed better” says Dave deBronkart, an international patient engagement spokesman known as “e-Patient Dave,” and the keynote of Connecticut’s first patient engagement conference targeted for both consumers and healthcare providers. Convened by Qualidigm, the national healthcare consulting company in Wethersfield, Conn., the CT Partners for Health will host the educational forum, “Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility,” Sept. 17, 2013, 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at Hartford’s CT Convention Center.

This inaugural conference will illustrate the nation’s emerging patient engagement (“e-patient”) movement in which patients are becoming their own medical advocates and partnering with physicians to jointly make medical decisions. The term “e-patient” describes those who are “equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged” in their health, healthcare decisions and in transforming healthcare. A recent Health Affairs study demonstrated that patients who actively participate in shared decision-making with healthcare providers have better outcomes and lower healthcare costs. Of 33,000 patients studied, researchers found that patients who did not actively participate in their healthcare had 8 percent to 21 percent higher costs than patients with high engagement levels.

Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility will help to inform and empower Connecticut consumers to proactively manage their own health and navigate today’s rapidly-changing healthcare system in order to become a true partner with their medical team to manage their own healthcare. Additionally, the conference will offer tangible insights to healthcare providers – licensed and non-licensed – on how to more effectively communicate with their patients; enabling them to better manage their own health care and outcomes.

“The most under-utilized resource in healthcare is the patient,” asserts deBronkart, who sought self-empowerment when his oncologist diagnosed him with a rare and terminal cancer. After defying slim odds and beating his cancer, deBronkart became a blogger, health policy advisor, international speaker and the author of several books including Let Patients Help: A Patient Engagement Handbook. His TED Talk, Let Patients Help, has gone viral and is in the top half of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time.     

Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility will include informative and interactive break-out sessions for healthcare providers and consumers led by local and national experts. Workshop topics will include:

•     Advance Care Planning
•     Medication Management
•     Patient Engagement Through Technology
•     The Affordable Care Act
•     Patient-Centered Care
•     Effective Provider/Patient Communication

The conference will also include a reception and dinner to facilitate networking opportunities at which healthcare futurist, Nathan Kaufman, will provide a view of healthcare’s emerging landscape and trends, and the patient’s central role in participating in and reforming healthcare as a vested stakeholder and consumer empowered with new knowledge and support resources.

“Our healthcare industry is undergoing an unprecedented evolution, giving rise to a confusing marketplace of consumer options. Central to successfully managing this change is engaging patients and healthcare providers to communicate in improved ways that empower patients to actively assist in managing their own health through informed choices. These choices will be aided by face-to-face discussion, technology, online communities, and knowledge networks,” said Tim Elwell, Qualidigm CEO. “Healthcare remains a local endeavor and innovation is a contact sport. Our hope is that by providing a venue for patients and providers to interact, innovation and mutual understanding will result.”

“We are faced with a unique and exciting opportunity,” said Ken Lalime, CEO of HealthyCT, Connecticut’s new and only non-profit, member-owned insurance cooperative. “The relationship between patients, their doctors and other health partners must be at the heart of the new healthcare system. Our mission is to support that relationship with affordable products and services that deliver quality, lower costs, improve satisfaction and address the needs of very diverse populations.”

HealthyCT is the lead sponsor of Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility Conference.

To Register Online:
Visit http://www.ctpartnersforhealth.org for more information about Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility, including online registration and sponsorship opportunities.

About Qualidigm:
Qualidigm’s mission is to advance the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of health care. The company provides consulting services to public and private sector clients nationwide. These services include Consulting, Data Analysis, Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, Quality Improvement and Utilization Review. For close to 30 years, Qualidigm has served as the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for the State of Connecticut under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In this capacity, Qualidigm is charged with protecting the rights of Medicare beneficiaries and improving the safety and quality of care they receive. Qualidigm is also a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) as designated by the State of Connecticut. http://www.Qualidigm.org.

About CT Partners for Health:
The Connecticut Partners for Health was convened by Qualidigm. It is a working group of more than 40 key healthcare stakeholders representing healthcare providers and trade associations, consumer organizations, health plans and payers, community-based organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, quasi-government agencies, voluntary health organizations, the regional extension center, and the business community. The group meets regularly to identify issues and develop strategies for managing healthcare-related challenges facing consumers and healthcare providers. The Partners’ vision is to achieve the triple-aim of the National Quality Strategy: Better Care, Healthy People/Healthy Communities and Affordable Care. Its mission is to align healthcare quality improvement and patient safety initiatives in Connecticut to ensure efficient, cost-effective and coordinated efforts among healthcare providers and varies stakeholders. http://www.ctpartnersforhealth.org.

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