Great Debate #2: Building Health 2.0 into the Delivery System

Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, MPP, of Renaissance Health, discussed how it’s the patient’s job to manage his or her care, while the doctor’s job is to provide the necessary tools and treatment. He said that patient health plans need to be created because it is the patient who establishes his or her priorities, not the doctors who spend very little time with the patient during the year.

Fernandopulle received rousing applause when he said that patients should be given complete access to their EMRs. This idea has also been addressed by Kevin Pho, MD, at KevinMD.com in a post titled “Should Patients Own Their Medical Records?” He asked, “Should patients have complete access? Probably not. A lot of the medical chart is simply not relevant to a patient’s well-being.”

Probably the most profound quote of the entire day was John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, saying, “We don’t want too much care. We don’t want too little care. We want appropriate care.”