The Challenge

Moving from evangelism to evidence, from transactional to relational.

There are many studies of the impact of various forms of collaborative healthcare in various diseases. This partial mosaic of studies and inferences suggests that there is great potential for participatory medicine to impact health outcomes, costs, provider satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and health equity. There is an opportunity to generate broad evidence that such collaboration leads to more effective and less expensive healthcare.

We need a measure!

The missing piece in the mosaic of the evidence for participatory medicine is a mechanism to rigorously and consistently measure the actions, behaviors, and perceptions of patients (consumers), providers, and health systems over time.

The Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM) is working to develop a Collaborative Healthcare Action Measurement Platform (CHAMP) to close this gap.

Why?

Participatory medicine makes sense intuitively.

There are many stories and anecdotes that act as proof cases. But that is not enough.

Healthcare is based on science. Science demands data that can be followed, tested, and analyzed. CHAMP is the mechanism for collecting those data.

Healthcare is a business. CHAMP is the mechanism for collecting data that businesses can use to understand the impact of investments and actions.

Patients are healthcare consumers. CHAMP is the mechanism for collecting data that patients can use to make better choices, take effective actions, and collaborate with their providers.

CHAMP:

Collaborative Healthcare Action Measurement Platform

Vision for CHAMP

We will gather nationwide data on the behaviors and actions of patients/family caregivers and their healthcare providers that will quantify the uptake of participatory medicine practices and principles.

We will collect these data in a way that allows comparison by region, facility, practice, health system, medical specialty, and other relevant factors.

We will publish and provide summary data that will encourage individuals and organizations to take concrete action to improve their participatory performance.

Objectives

The objectives of CHAMP are:

To quantify the level of collaborative healthcare activity and behaviors among patients, family caregivers, their providers, and healthcare systems in a consistent and rigorous manner.

To provide a basis for comparing the level of collaborative healthcare activity across time, geography, systems, practices, medical specialties, populations, and other dimensions.

To provide a basis for setting goals towards broadly achieving the vision of widespread uptake of collaborative healthcare activity.

To accumulate a valid dataset that can be used to investigate the relationships between collaborative healthcare activity and other measures.

To assess changes in activities and behaviors over time by repeating the survey at regular intervals.

Approach & Plan

We are partnering with key academic, patient, and healthcare leaders to develop a robust, validated self-reported survey instrument.

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Develop an Instrument

We will develop an instrument to assess patients’ participatory health experiences across the domains of our Manifesto and attitudes about their participation in healthcare.

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Surveying Regularly

We will conduct the survey regularly as we work to improve healthcare

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Regional Survey

We will design an initial regional survey starting in 2026, then grow to a national survey; both will have a sample of patients with representation to support segmentation by health status, geographies, and sociodemographic groups

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Parallel Surveys

In subsequent years we will conduct parallel surveys directed at healthcare professionals and institutions

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Share Results

We will share results in 2026 through press releases, social media, white papers, lay publications, peer-reviewed publications, blogs, podcasts, and annual reports

Coalition

SPM is forming a Coalition of supportive and like-minded organizations to assist in the development and implementation of CHAMP. The value of such a measure is to better understand the real impact of participatory medicine. We believe a Coalition will lead to a more robust and useful tool.

Coalition meets quarterly and offers expert support to the development of CHAMP and dissemination of CHAMP findings
Development will occur in phases and Coalition membership will evolve along with CHAMP
Work groups will be formed to use any in-kind donations of services and expertise of Coalition members; work groups will meet as agreed upon between SPM and contributing organizations to utilize in-kind donations supporting CHAMP development
Valued Coalition members will receive access to reports and data; participation as thought leaders in the project
There are no initial requirements for Coalition members to make either in-kind or monetary contributions to advance CHAMP, but as development progresses, SPM will request such support
Coalition members and SPM will execute a memorandum of understanding that defines mutual expectations for participation

If your organization is interested in joining this exciting work, please send us an email expressing your interest by clicking on the button:

Apply for Coalition Membership