We treat people, not just disease

[Guest guest]

One of the subtle but essential points of the IMP project is to make

it so we can treat people and not just disease.

A problem with the current approach to measuring health care quality

is that it is almost totally consumed by a focus on biometrics,

missing that we treat people, not just disease. To re-focus on

people we need meaningful, effective, and achievable means to unmask

what is important to the people we serve. To this end our project

uses HowsYourHealth to track patient reported outcome measures.

The current measurement mistakes exacerbate the harmful effects of

productivity pressures, thus making the following story all to common

and obvious.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080113/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_beck_s_pain

As you talk to people about your practices, remind them that the

medical home exists now, we're doing it, we're measuring it to show

that it works, and that we treat people and have the time to make eye contact.

Gordon