Health IT, Patient Engagement

These tweets perfectly sum up the divide on patient engagement

Why have providers fought even the modest requirement in Stage 2 Meaningful Use that 5 percent of patients view, download or transmit health data through a portal or personal health record? Two tweets from Health Datapalooza tell the story.

Why have providers fought even the modest requirement in Stage 2 Meaningful Use that 5 percent of patients view, download or transmit health data through a portal or personal health record?

There clearly is a divide between what healthcare providers believe is feasible right now and what patient advocates see as reasonable and possible, as evidenced by the backlash to a proposed change in Stage 2 rules to reduce the minimum from 5 percent to a single patient.

Patient advocates and pro-engagement types dominate the audience at Health Datapalooza in Washington, which kicked off Monday morning. This tweet tells what happens when a vendor executive suggests to this crowd that maybe not enough consumers have requested access to their health data.

Note that Health 2.0 co-founder Matthew Holt changed his Twitter profile photo in protest of the proposed regulatory change. He was not alone among Health Datapalooza attendees. (Interestingly, Ed Park’s brother, former federal CTO Todd Park, started Health Datapalooza in 2010.) Later, an executive with population health management technology vendor Welltok got smacked down for suggesting that the healthcare industry should be “driving” consumer behavior rather than responding to it.


Truly engaged patients don’t want to be patronized or condescended to. Keep that in mind the next time the subject comes up.

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