Whats behind the Health Partners Program?
HOPKINS: One of the limitations of health care has been that the core offering is really only one option – doctors get together with patients in an exam or hospital room. For some patients and for some procedures, that may be exactly right. For other people, because of their personality, because of their disease or because of their needs, we need alternative models, including more effective use of groups, the Internet or even the telephone. HOLMAN: One-on-one interactions between doctor and patient was an appropriate management tool when acute disease was the dominant problem. This works with something like a broken leg or a bout of pneumonia that is new to the patient. But with chronic disease, we should be exploring a new model, because patients have time to become “smart” about what’s happening. And we have to be willing to incorporate this approach in our training. We have had medical students ask to come to our Health Partners sessions because I think they recognize that it is a m
