Second Annual Conference Summary: Sholom Glouberman

The second annual conference of the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) was a broad-based discussion of how patients could participate in guiding our health care system. There were 19 separate sessions on a wide variety of topics held throughout the day. The notes will be posted on the web site and commentary will be made available. As you read them, you’ll notice that the topics are wide ranging and full of ideas. Patients are increasingly being engaged with respect to health care governance, and the patient perspective is steadily developing to be included in governance activities regarding the patient experience.

I would like to thank everyone who attended this conference and participated in the day. The convenors found critical topics to work on and they each session drew participants. The conversations were all valuable and there is a lot to digest. We will take the rough notes, organize them and then organize a public meeting in the next few weeks to consolidate. I expect the meeting to progress like last years where members gave us a lot to think about, important direction for the coming year, and much for further discussion.

The conference is part of project sponsored by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Other sponsors include Saint Elizabeth Health Care, the William Osler Health System, PatientOrderSets.com, the Ontario Medical Association, LDIC and Green Shield Canada.

Special thanks must go to our staff who worked from early in the morning until late: Ryan Devitt, who manned the computer stations, Christina Spencer who ensured a clean set up and Jennifer Carroll who organized the event, including the small details that made everything work.

Our PAC volunteers for the day who made sure that everyone was cared for properly: thanks to Janice Baker, Judy Berger, Rosalee Berlin, Charles Goodall, Gail Kaufman, Roslyn Levy, Jennifer Orange, Lynn Pelley, Paul Smith and Cat Taylor.

Misha Glouberman was an experienced and very talented facilitator for this highly participatory event. He made sure that everyone understood the ground rules and encouraged everyone to contribute.

The after-party celebrated the launch of our second book Journeys in Cancerland by Lisa Newman and John-Peter Bradford. Robert McKay, the Chairman of the Patients’ Association of Canada introduced me and I spoke about the importance of patient narratives and the need to bring them into the spotlight. This handsome book (available from us for $20) marks our second year and our second publication. It is our intention to find more significant patient narratives to publish regularly. The book captures two examples of patients and caregivers who take charge of their care and are deeply involved in it.

The book is engrossing and the stories are a model of excellent patient narrative. We have a great deal to learn from them about the experience of being a patient and a caregiver. The two authors gave heartfelt touching talks about the book and what might be learned from their stories. A good time was had by the assembled multitudes.