The importance of being patient

Patients are the only ones entitled of their own health. It derives that patients should be at the very center of the whole health care process and that health service should be done with and not to them. Unfortunately, too often patients are displaced or forgotten, although literature strongly suggests that benefit from their participation outweighs the drawbacks as they are an incredibly under-used resource both in research and in health care. Thus the challenges are for all the stakeholders involved, for professionals, National Health Services and patient associations to give the ways and tools for an active public involvement and participation, and for patient themselves to become expert and autonomous partners in health. The World Health Organization, through the program Patient Safety, has accepted this challenge, involving and training lay people to achieve a leader role in all the steps of health care, with a particular attention to safety, and to become able to speak up.