6 years ago After What’s the Fix? ended and we all had a little time to catch our breath, we started wondering how each of our speakers felt after the event. In this quick interview, we sat down to chat with speaker Amy Gleason, Chief of Staff at CareSync, and ask her a few questions about her experience with the conference.
Why did you want to participate in What’s the Fix?
The conference was first described to me as being different than other health care conferences, and that concept was intriguing.
I loved the idea that the conference focused first and foremost on patients and caregivers as speakers and as attendees. While health care professionals were also included as attendees, I it was important to me that they weren’t the on-stage focus, but rather that they were there to learn from the patients, caregivers, and others that have to experience health care and know what needs to change from first-hand experience.
I also loved that the goal was to get people to commit to making at least one change from what they learned at the conference.
What was the biggest insight or learning you had from the conference?
I learned so much from all of the speakers!
I think the biggest insight was hearing the stories of how patients were able to overcome huge challenges – not just with their diseases, but with the health care system itself. From hearing Dana Lewis talk about creating an artificial pancreas that not only helped her manage her disease, but also gave her virtual hugs to help with the psychological aspects of her condition, to hearing Tami Rich talk about overcoming serious medical errors during her son’s treatment and her work to keep additional ones from happening, I was inspired and reminded how powerful engaged patients are and how much we need to work to get all patients or their family members to be engaged.
Has What’s the Fix? inspired you to make a further commitment to helping change health care? If so, can you explain what that commitment is?
I think the biggest commitment I’m walking away from the conference with is a renewal to include more patients in the design process of CareSync’s product and service. We do a lot of surveys and calls, but those can’t replace the honesty, frustration and excitement that can be seen by having patients come in for face-to-face meetings. You can’t easily replicate face-to-face interactions on the phone or computer, and my commitment is to remember that each patient story and experience is so different from another and to include more in-person patient experiences in my work.
Learn more:
See Amy’s panel discussion below and be sure to catch her on Twitter at @ThePatientsSide
