Yesterday’s post “Why Gary Schwitzer joined” sparked a lot of discussion, online and off. Why not turn it into a series??

The next to submit is Kent Bottles MD, president of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI). He’s deep, as his blog posts suggest, and patient-oriented; he’s the farthest thing from paternalism you could imagine. (Most recent posts: Will Comparative Effectiveness Research Really Make a Difference if the Public Doesn’t Want It? and Maybe Being Wrong is Better and More Human than Being Right.)

Here’s why Kent was one of the earliest members of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

“I joined the Society for Participatory Medicine because I am really worried that the gap between providers and patients will prevent us from transforming the health care delivery system.  My day job at ICSI is clearly in the evidence-based medicine world, and I appreciate how important expanding what we know about guidelines will be for better patient care.

“However, patients have a different view of evidence-based medicine and it is not always positive. Seth Frazier, Vice President of Transformation at Geisinger, has noted this gap between the academic literature of evidence-based medicine and what patients and providers need at the point of care.  He taught me that providers need actionable recommendations that can be integrated into the flow of the clinic and hospital and that much of the evidence-based medicine product is not usable in this practical way.   This observation reminded me of the gap between the public and the health care experts that Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation  documented so effectively and the Kristen Carmen Health Affairs  survey that said patients regard evidence-based medicine as a barrier to what they want.

“By joining the Society I hope to work with others to make this gap disappear and to forge effective and practical alliances between providers and patients.”

Kent Bottles, MD, President, ICSI, Bloomington, MN

The coming year will be active for your Society. Participate!

• Want to start a project or join one? Volunteer.
• Want to join? Click here. It’s just $30 for individuals, or free if you need it.
  • See our full member list, including Kent, here.
• Organizational memberships are most welcome too, from Innovator to Gold.