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Time to start including patients more in the delivery and evaluation of health care
 Per Kjaersgaard-Andersen |
Today, in orthopaedic surgery and traumatology, an even broader interdisciplinary approach to working with patients is needed. Furthermore, in order to meet the eventual requirements of health care systems, registries, governments and other organizations, it is clear that those involved in musculoskeletal medicine should start now to take steps to actively adopt patient-based approaches at our centers and in hospitals throughout Europe.
Basically, this new model must replace the traditional one, of the physician’s diagnosis, evaluation, treatment and follow-up being central to practicing medicine. It will still involve all those steps — and perhaps a few more — but will make the patient the central focus of health care delivery. This change does not have to happen over night. It can be gradual and accomplished in small steps, but it must happen.
One easy way to begin is through better communication with patients; finding out before an intervention what their expectations are and explaining clearly what various procedures can help them achieve in terms of quality of life, an ability to return to work and activities of daily living. Shared decision-making and increased patient education are other effective ways to involve patients in the health care process preoperatively and postoperatively.
Throughout this process, using validated and standardized patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) will become increasingly important, a topic detailed in-depth in the cover story in this issue of Orthopaedics Today Europe.
If you are attending the 12th EFORT Congress in Copenhagen from 1-4 June, or any other orthopaedic scientific meeting this summer, expect to see more presentations on the programs that include PROMs results. There is no doubt that will soon be a new way of life in orthopaedic research and eventually something your patients, colleagues and hospitals will come to expect.