On May 14, PVI founder Pat Mastors closed the Health 2.0 “HX Refactored” conference by announcing PVI. See the hxr2014 Twitter archive here.
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As regular readers know, I’ve been running a series called Speaker Academy, to share with other patients some of my methods as a voice of the patient. I do this because
- The audience for patient voices has expanded dramatically in the past few years. Conferences and policy meetings need more patient voices.
- Medicine (the profession and the policy world) need to hear from more diverse voices
- Hundreds, if not thousands, of patients and family want to be effective voices in fixing or transforming healthcare. But wanting to do something is a far cry from being effective at it. We need to develop professional skills among patient voices.
And that’s what’s behind the launch today of the new Patient Voice Institute, “gathering and sharing the wisdom of patients.” Check out the rich set of information on the website.
This is a logical next step, a maturing of, the excellent Patients Included initiative started by @LucienEngelen at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. He’s the crazy Dutch innovator who produced the TEDx conference where I and many other patients gave speeches.
“Never forget that a small group of
thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed,
it’s the only thing that has.” – MargaretMead
Conceived and brought to life in just a few months by Pat Mastors and Diane Stollenwerk, with copious work by Diane’s colleague Emily Henry, PVI intends to bring professionalism and a reliable brand to the world of incorporating patient voices in medical work.