Healthcare works best when patients and providers work together as true partners. This fundamental principle of participatory medicine—where patients are active collaborators rather than passive recipients of care—has never been more important. Yet recent survey findings reveal significant gaps in how this collaboration plays out across different patient populations, highlighting both progress made and work still to be done.

The Current State of Patient-Provider Collaboration

A survey of over 1,000 Americans reveals fascinating insights into how patients engage with their healthcare teams and where disparities persist. The findings paint a nuanced picture of collaboration that varies significantly based on gender, income, marital status, and ethnicity.^[1]

Overall Room for Improvement

The survey surfaced a few serious concerns.  For example, just 1 in 2 patients felt included in their care team.  Furthermore, only 1 in 5 were treated as experts in their own health.  And fewer than 2 in 3 thought clinicians always spoke honestly. These results indicate that the uptake of participatory medicine is nowhere near complete and that there is more work to be done.  We will not understand the trajectory of collaborative healthcare until we collect additional data over time.

Gender Dynamics in Healthcare

While men and women generally rate their healthcare teams similarly—with providers using understandable language and speaking honestly at comparable rates—women emerge as notably stronger self-advocates. They’re more likely to consistently ask questions to understand their care, advocate for themselves, and actively seek information about their treatment. Women also demonstrate greater willingness to reach out to others for help managing their health, suggesting a more collaborative approach to care coordination.

The Income Divide

Perhaps most concerning are the challenges faced by patients earning under $50,000 annually. This population reports significant barriers including difficulty understanding healthcare language, feeling that loved ones aren’t adequately involved in their

care, and not being treated as experts in their own health. They’re also less likely to come prepared to appointments, speak openly with providers, or see themselves as active care team members. This disparity represents a critical opportunity for healthcare systems to enhance engagement among less affluent patients.

Partnership Status Matters

Marital status creates another layer of healthcare disparity. Partnered individuals are significantly more engaged with healthcare teams and report better experiences overall. Single patients face a double challenge—not only are they less likely to have engaged with healthcare providers in the past year, but when they do, they report that providers are less likely to use understandable language, respect their preferences, or involve loved ones as desired.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities

The data reveals troubling disparities across racial and ethnic lines. Hispanic patients visit healthcare providers less frequently and report lower satisfaction across nearly all metrics of healthcare team performance. They’re less likely to report that providers use understandable language or communicate honestly. Conversely, Black/African American patients are most likely to report that providers encourage them to learn about their health, suggesting some providers may be successfully fostering curiosity and engagement with this population.

Control Preferences and Participation

Interestingly, patients who prefer doctors to maintain more control over healthcare decisions report that providers speak more honestly with them. However, this same group feels less respected in terms of their preferences and is less likely to be treated as health experts. They also show lower engagement in active participation behaviors like preparing for appointments and seeking care information.

Moving Toward True Collaborative Healthcare

These findings underscore that collaboration truly is the best medicine—but we’re not there yet across all populations. The disparities revealed point to specific areas where healthcare providers can enhance patient participation and build stronger partnerships.

In addition, the overall findings for the actions and behaviors of both patients and providers leave a lot of room for growth.  One might assume that the natural goal would be 100% of respondents indicating that they almost always do or experience many of these actions and behaviors. For example, all people should feel respected by their healthcare providers, right?

In reality, we need to do much more research to define the ideal level of healthcare collaboration, or more correctly, the ideal mix of these behaviors and actions.

The Path Forward

Effective collaboration requires intentional effort from both patients and providers. For patients, this means developing skills in sharing information responsibly, listening actively, showing respect for provider expertise, maintaining curiosity about their health, and becoming effective team builders. For providers, it means recognizing and addressing the unique barriers faced by different patient populations.

The solution lies in fostering environments where all patients—regardless of income, marital status, or ethnicity—feel empowered to participate actively in their care. This requires targeted approaches to engage less affluent, single, and Hispanic patient populations who currently face the greatest barriers to full participation.

This survey was a first step in learning how to quantify the level and quality of participatory medicine across the nation. The results demonstrate that a robust collaborative healthcare action measurement platform will provide actionable insights for patients, providers, and healthcare systems.

As we work toward more equitable healthcare partnerships, the goal remains clear: creating collaborative relationships where patients and providers work together as equal partners, with mutual respect, open communication, and shared responsibility for health outcomes. When we achieve this vision, collaboration truly becomes the best medicine for everyone.

Written with assistance from ChatGPT and Claude AI. Image via Leonardo.ai (nano banana). Psychotherapy icon created by Iconjam – Flaticon

1. ^[1]Additional Statistical Analysis performed by Tina Bronkhurst.↩