679 What Expert Patients Can Teach Us

Everyone needs health care at some point, and in today’s complex health-care system, patients are at risk for errors. Some people with chronic illnesses who have logged a lot of time in hospitals have thought hard about how patients can help providers give them the best possible care. We talk with two expert patients and get their recommendations for communicating with health care providers and coping with a complicated health care system. An amazingly uplifting show.
Guests: Tiffany Christensen, patient advocate and author of Sick Girl Speaks: Lessons and Ponderings Along the Road to Acceptance. She has had cystic fibrosis since infancy and has undergone two double lung transplants. The photo is of Ms. Christensen.
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, is clinical professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine and founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal. Her groundbreaking curriculum, The Healer’s Art, is taught in nearly half of America’s medical schools. She is author of the bestsellers, Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings. Dr. Remen has had Crohn’s disease for more than 50 years, and her work is a unique blend of the viewpoints of both physician and patient.