Live Well with Michelle: Who Gets a Say in Your Healthcare?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Michelle Martin (0:13)

Okay, all right. So let's get going with Live Well with me, Michelle Martin. Thank you so much for your company this morning. My guest is joining us all the way from Australia. We're so thrilled to have her with us. We're talking about including the patient's voice in the Singapore healthcare system today. We know healthcare decisions are ultimately about us patients, but how much of a say do patients actually have in the way that care is designed and delivered? This is one of the issues explored at Voices for Health, a summit to advance patient-centered health systems. That was a regional gathering of healthcare leaders, patient advocates, policymakers, providers, payers, and industry representatives. What a room. The summit also marked the launch of Voices for Health. That's a new regional platform looking at how patient voices can play a stronger role in healthcare decision-making, access, care delivery, all with the aim of advancing more equitable health care outcomes. Our guest was one of the speakers at the discussion that was broad ranging, and we're going to speak with her about her perspective on embedding patient's voice across the health care system. Not just here in Singapore, across the world as well. What does it really mean to put the patient's voice at the heart of health care? Let's meet Ann Single, CEO of the Patient Voice Initiative and also President of Health Technology Assessment International. Good morning, Ann. Thank you so much for joining us.

Ann Single (1:38)

Good morning, Michelle. Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Martin (1:41)

Talk to us about your work, Ann, what lands on your desk on a daily basis?

Ann Single (1:47)

Sure.

So in Australia, one of the things I do is we focus in Patient Voice Initiative on bringing patient knowledge to the decision makers who make decisions about what is needed on our health care system here. So that process behind it is called Health Technology Assessment, and really it's trying to determine whether something is good value for the health system. And we know they use a lot of clinical evidence, and economic models. But one of the things that really helps to make sure it's relevant is to gain knowledge from the patient community.

Michelle Martin (2:26)

Ann Single is CEO of Patient Voice Initiative, and also president of Health Technology Assessment International. So, patient-centered health care sounds like something anyone would instinctively want to support, any system would think is valuable.

What do you think is missing though from health care systems today that makes this ongoing conversation around patient-centered health care necessary?

Ann Single (2:51)

I think that's a really good question. So, our health systems are driven by evidence that comes from clinical trials, and also informed by economic analysis. But sometimes the things that matter most to patients haven't actually been captured in that evidence. And some of that knowledge can come from that embodied knowledge, where you experience something in yourself, monitor your condition. It can be about systems knowledge, and that knowledge is the medical knowledge, or how to navigate your system. And then there's the community knowledge, the knowledge you gain amongst your community of other people who have your condition.

And so, to have a health system with great outcomes, we need to learn from that patient knowledge.

Michelle Martin (3:44)

Singapore is often ranked as one of the world's best health care systems. From your perspective, what are we doing really well here in Singapore, and where is there room for improvement, Ann?

Ann Single (3:54)

One of the things I love about Singapore, and what it's doing about making decisions about what technologies it funds, is it has a patient or consumer involvement process in its decision making process. It has a panel of consumers or patients that give advice, and also an opportunity for patient organizations and patients to give input into that system. I also see really well developed and informed patient organizations there. And so there's a great opportunity to work with the patient community and to learn more from them.

And often that comes from involving them as early as possible in the system, right back when we're designing trials, and to make sure that our trials actually meet the needs of the patient communities, and taking that learning all the way through into how we implement health care.

Michelle Martin (4:56)

And we seem to be doing a lot right here in Singapore. But if you were advising our health care leaders or stakeholders, what is one change, do you think, that might make patients feel more involved in their own care?