Eric Dishman
Dr. Carla Cupido*, founder of The Realization Project in North Vancouver, sent this my way:
Eric Dishman, a seasoned patient and medical tech developer, speaks of how technology is the ticket toward better care, and how we can best address the inherent financial and structural problems that are crumbling the medical system.
[Doctors] are working in a flawed expensive system that is set up the wrong way...
He presents three pillars of Personalized Health Care:
Care Anywhere
Technology allows us to very effectively do remote diagnosis, through Video calls, using things like the FitBit, My Fitness Pal, WellnessFx, or the dozens of other data gathering tools that people can use at home, and then share with their physicians. In his particular situation, he has Ultrasound capabilities with his smart phone. The live exam with his doctor took less than 5 minutes. That is effective healthcare.
Naturopathic Care is often focused on conditions that need even less hands-on diagnosis. Much of what we do can easily be done through remote consultation, video visuals and patient assistance. Preventative medicine starts with 'Care Anywhere'.
Care Networking
Intelligent professionals that work together, using the shared information that originates from the patient, is how we limit uncoordinated, sloppy, slip-through-the-cracks care. He appropriately says, "Uncoordinated care today is expensive at best, and it is deadly at worse".
The current model of isolated practitioners leads patients to feel like tossed around broken records. Care network relies on the patients to be actively involved in information gathering and relaying. It asks caregivers to get off the soapbox and get on a team. One person is not enough to provide holistic care. More than a group of practitioners working in the same clinic, but a real case management team.
- The concept of care networking is cost-efficient, patient-centered, and comprehensive. Efficacious Naturopathic Doctors are the ones who can call on their team of professionals to get you the best care possible. They encourage you to take your information into your own hands, learn about it, and ask questions.
Care Customization
It's about patients doing the work to understand their goals, and healthcare teams doing the work to prioritize those goals. It's about optimizing quality of life for the individual, not meeting public health statistics.
We've got the potential of biomarker diagnostics, genome mapping, microbiome mapping; These just keep expanding the potential for personalized medicine. These micro-customizations seem to be the path forward in the medical system.
- Even without these micro-customizations, the concept of caring for an individual's particular life, body, history and goals, is crucial and inherently medically progressive.We can't build an above-average society if each one of us is treated as an average.Naturopathic medicine is macro-level customization. It is focused on helping you become your best you.
"Humans invented the idea of hospitals and clinics in the 1780s. It is time to update our thinking. We have got to untether clinicians and patients from the notion of traveling to a special brick-and-mortar place for all our care...." - Eric Dishman
I think Change is pretty close to fitting this bill. Find a Change practitioner to help you take charge of your health, today. Already on board with this? Share it. Love it? Like it.
We still have work to do to open up a dialogue for regular case management with others professionals. I have a feeling that Change practitioners are the ones who will forge that path.
*Dr. Cupido is a lecturer, writer and empowerment focused movement specialist. Check her out.