Nothing About Me Without Me

Active and effective partnerships with patients are increasingly recognized as key to improving the design, delivery and organization of health services and policy. Co-designing for improvement yields new insights and tends to lead to better results than healthcare providers, researchers, or policy makers acting on their own. (For convenience, I use the term "patient" here since it has been identified as a term of choice in several Canadian focus groups. I intend it in an inclusive sense, not only referring to those who have a particular health problem or who use specific health services, but also family, friends, and other caregivers, as well as those who bring other important perspectives from their lived experience of interactions with the health and social sectors.).