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care planning

Apr 02 2017
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Service Agreements for Me and My Health Team

By Advocate, Caregiver, Consumer, ePatient

I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago for the Society of Participatory Medicine about Service Agreements Among Friends and Colleagues. My point was that service agreements set boundaries, which can be especially important for someone who’s managing a chronic condition. I shared my post with my colleagues at Involution Studios while we discussed the future of Precision Medicine.  What if we had service agreements with members of our health team? Professionals and non-professionals. And ourselves. Could we think of care plans as service agreements? Person-centered care planning focuses on the goals of the person on the health journey. Who’s going to do what to get there? When? How will these goals and activities be tracked and shared across time and settings? The service agreement is the who’s doing what to get there and when are they going to do it? If my goal is to progress as slowly as possible with my Multiple Sclerosis, then my part of the service agreement is that I will: Read More

Mar 19 2017
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Coalition for Compassionate Care of California

By Advocate, Caregiver, Clinician, ePatient, Leader, Researcher


I attended the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California Conference (#CCCC17) in Sacramento this week as an ePatient Scholar. Exhilarating, informative, warm, curious, inspiring, and tiring. I hoped to leave with one novel (for me) insight into palliative care; hear patient, caregiver, and clinician stories about their experiences; to hear how clinicians receive education about end-of-life conversations; to add to my network of patient/caregiver experts; and leave with a sharper focus for my #careplanning work. Amazing! I accomplished all five. I hoped to accomplish three of five (I habitually set myself up to exceed expectations). Read More

Feb 19 2017
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Tales of Woe

By Advocate, Caregiver, Clinician, Consumer, ePatient, Family man, Leader

From my memorable quotes pile:

Harried caregiver: What are we supposed to do next? Instructions from doctors, just getting through the day, plus dealing with bureaucracy? My word, I’m so overwhelmed. Everybody thinks their thing is the most important. Can’t this be easier for my wife and me?

Recently diagnosed patient:  I feel like crap. I want to follow instructions, I do. I thought I understood everything at the office.  Now I’m home, how do I get my questions answered? Read More

Feb 06 2017
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Personal Health Goals

By Advocate, Caregiver, Clinician, Consumer, ePatient, Family man, Uncategorized

 

As a person with MS, I’ve written that my personal health goals are to progress as slowly as possible and do nothing that will mess with my pathological optimism. People I talk with about personal health goals say it’s not easy to come up with personal goals.  What do I mean? OK, people who are well want to stay well.  Those who are acutely ill (cold, broken leg, stomach ache, etc.) want to get over it. Those who have chronic conditions want to manage as best as possible. Here’s a stab at a list of personal health goals. Read More

Jan 26 2017
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Interview: Danny on Urgent Care Radio

By Clinician, ePatient, Family man, Informaticist, Leader, Uncategorized

As many of you already know, on January 7, 2017, Minda Wilson interviewed me on the URGENT CARE radio show. Here’s a link to the episode. I recommend the show, URGENT CARE. Many good interviews of caregivers, patients, clinicians, and policy experts. Minda, a health care attorney, knows her stuff. URGENT CARE is one of many shows on Radioactive Broadcasting. Let me know what you think of the interview!

For those interested, here’s  my full 2016 Annual Report [gview file=”https://em810e.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2016-Annual-Report.docx”]. Read it to know what I’ve been up to in this 2016 transition year. I’m grateful to all of you!

Jan 16 2017
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Health Hats – 2016 in Review

By Advocate, Caregiver, Clinician, ePatient, Family man, Informaticist, Leader, Researcher

I’ve been feeling my oats in 2016 as an advocate and catalyst for Empowering people as they travel together toward best health. As my dear friend, Mary Sue said, Danny, you’ve found your calling! Wearing my many hats, I often feel like I know enough to be dangerous about much of healthcare. When I walk into a room of experts in their fields – clinicians, researchers, policy makers, techies, insurers, executives, I think, What am I doing here? I’m way over my head. It takes two minutes to understand that I’m the connector of their considerable expertise to the workflow and life flow of patients, clinicians, caregivers, and staff. I’m also the translator among their jargons. I can shift the conversation by offering a voice for some experiences of patients, caregivers, and clinicians.

I’ve refined my work this year as a connector, translator, and advisor while working as a technical expert in patient-centered research, behavioral health information technology, community health, and health payment innovation. I’ve benefited from the warm embrace of Wellesley Partners during this transition year after leaving my 40+ years as an employee and boss.  I am grateful that they believed in me and helped me polish a few rough edges of inexperience. I also appreciate the counsel of many – Doug, Geri, Pat(s), Juhan, Bevin, Eve, Jarred, Keren, Jonathan, Sarah, and Lauren to name a few. You all know who you are. Thanks. I’m grateful for the many inspiring people in the patient/caregiver/clinician experience space. Thanks for all you do. You keep my embers glowing. Read More

Jan 02 2017
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Three Words for the Year

By Caregiver, ePatient, Family man, Leader, Musician

CareGiving.com is sponsoring Note to Ourselves For 2016 and Three Words for 2017. 

My Note to Myself: Continue to do what I’m doing. Appreciate the small stuff (fresh running water, regular garbage pickup). Appreciate living within our means. Appreciate the warm rocks of my honey and my family. Appreciate my empathetic and skilled health team. Stick to my health and safety routine every day. Mentor bright young minds. Have fun when collaborating to do good work.

Three words: Balance. Caregivers. Onward.

Balance – Family, exercise, music, work. In that order

Caregivers – I do the work I do for caregivers – Honor the caregivers, help the helpers. We couldn’t exist without them.

Onward – Moving stuff an inch that has 10 miles to go, requires one foot in front of the other.

Happy New Year!!! Here we go – weeeee

Dec 29 2016
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Re-calibrating – Finding Balance

By Caregiver, ePatient, Family man

So, I have new MS lesions. I’m weaker, less stamina. A 3-days of IV SoluMedrol (steroids) infusion knocked me out. I’m recovering. What will my new normal be? Once again, I’m grateful for my health team. It reconfirms for me that executing a continuing plan of care for self, health team self-care, and building a responsive, loving, skilled health team are critical priorities for best health.

I’m out of balance. Balance implies constant motion – seesaw-like. It’s almost never a steady state. Balance occurs occasionally naturally while going up and down. A balance needs space and time to recalibrate. To think, to reflect, to adjust, to meditate, to vacation, to take a deep breath. Sometimes balance is an active process – change something, add weight, take off weight. More time at work, more time with family, more music, more exercise, more greens. Sometimes it’s laying back, letting life play out, resting, and return to balance as part of the normal see-saw. I’m lucky that I have a low tolerance for being out of balance.  I feel it acutely. I find it easier to be active attaining balance than to give myself some grace and let the balance return more organically. It feels better to be creating space and appreciating space.  More optimistic, better spirit.  Let’s see what happens. Honor caregivers. Help the helpers. Happy New Years, dear readers.

Dec 25 2016
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Recommit for the New Year

By Advocate, Caregiver, Clinician, ePatient, Family man, Informaticist, Leader

At year-end, I’m still on a mission to Empower people as they travel together toward best health. (Patients, caregivers, clinicians, direct care and support staff, communities)

  1. To understand and support each other
  2. To balance workload and capacity
  3. To achieve the best outcomes
  4. To communicate effectively during transitions of care
  5. To learn and share what works

These days more people in the health industrial complex listen to the voice of the patient, caregiver, and those others who care and serve. But the listening isn’t consistent. And the doing something sensible is sporadic and not often widespread. It’s gone from bleeding edge to just edge. I’m consumed with learning how to move this scary disappointing healthcare system an inch even though it needs to move 10 miles. I’m satisfied with the inch. The 10 miles is too much to fathom. I’m more aware than ever of having progressive conditions – MS and life. There’s a limit to what I can do. Read More

Dec 18 2016
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Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

By Advocate, Caregiver, ePatient, Family man, Leader, Musician, Researcher

Decisions, decisions, decisions. We face endless numbers of decisions during our health journeys. From the mundane, should I fast to lose weight? To the tedious, what statin should I take? To the heartbreak, should we do everything possible? Yesterday, after playing music, someone told us that he fasted to lose 20 pounds. How many weight loss discussions have we had in an endless number of settings. I can remember one time discussing it with my Primary Care doctor – no decision, no choice of action – just an observation that my weight had been steadily increasing over the years. My cholesterol is high, and my Dad died young of a heart attack (not from high cholesterol). I’ve taken six different statins. My Primary Care doc thinks the evidence is strong for me to take statins. We regularly change brand based on effects on my liver enzymes, cost, and insurance coverage.  A friend’s elder mother had major heart surgery. The cardiac surgeon reported success, she’s doing great – the blockage was successfully removed. She’s still in a coma, intubated. She’s never had end-of-life conversations, no advanced directives. Her husband will want to do everything possible. No decisions lead to a decision. Read More