{"id":1514,"date":"2009-03-10T11:01:56","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T16:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=1514"},"modified":"2009-03-10T11:01:56","modified_gmt":"2009-03-10T16:01:56","slug":"crowdsourced-healthcare-reform-the-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2009\/03\/crowdsourced-healthcare-reform-the-first-round.html","title":{"rendered":"Crowdsourced Healthcare Reform: The First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted from my own blog<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/span>
\nDuring 2 weeks in December 2008, over 9,000 Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia registered to host a health care community group to discuss healthcare reform. Thousands more participated in these gatherings. They all came together for a single, common purpose: to discuss reforming the health care system. This extensive use of local social networks to promote the direct engagement of the public in policy development by the Federal government was unprecedented. It produced 3,276 summaries of the groups main concerns and 30,603 individual participant surveys, submitted on the change.gov website. All suggestions were subsequently read and analyzed, line-by-line by a team<\/a> of experts. They produced a powerful analysis<\/a> of the needs & solutions for in-depth healthcare reform. This unique combination of crowdsourced content and expert analysis is truly unique and a sign of things to come. Just read this paragraph from the executive summary:<\/p>\n

The Health Care Community Discussions are a first step in this Administration’s commitment to an open and inclusive style of governance that allows all Americans to have a voice in our country’s health reform efforts. This Administration recognizes that true reform comes from the grassroots up and promises that when Americans speak, the Administration will listen. These Health Care Community Discussions reflect the President’s commitment to enlist the public in achieving a top priority: creating a health system that is affordable, accessible, and high-quality for all Americans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I highly recommend the report. It provides a clear picture that Americans are aware of the problem’s severity and probably able to produce many of the solutions, better than any internal committee from health professionals who can no longer see outside of the existing system. Considering that not a day goes by without the President mentioning the urgent need to reform the healthcare system, the document produced may be looked at as an informal roadmap of the changes we can expect.<\/p>\n

One of the most striking results from the analysis of the public responses was the lack of differences in the concerns and solutions identified by participants from across the Nation. The discussions focused on concerns about a \u201cbroken\u201d health system, particularly with regard to:<\/p>\n