Public symposium to focus on partnerships for health care

Partnerships between patients and their health-care teams and among health-care providers will be the focus of a mid-day symposium on campus Friday, May 5.

With the title “Are You a Partner in Your Health Care?” the event is free and open to everyone. It is intended for a general audience. The symposium begins at 10:30 a.m. in the HUB Auditorium and is scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m.

The featured speaker is Dr. Kate Lorig, director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center. She is considered an expert on working with patients to develop self-help and self-management skills, especially to handle chronic diseases such as arthritis. She will speak from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m.on “Positive Approaches for Partnering in Your Health Care.”

Lorig, an associate professor in Stanford’s School of Medicine, earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Boston University and a master’s and doctoral degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley. While she was a graduate student, she began working at Stanford in 1979 to develop an educational program that emphasized self-help skills for people with arthritis. The program eventually became the Arthritis Self-Help Course, now offered to thousands of people around the world. This was also the prototype for the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program and others. She has written several books and articles about arthritis, chronic disease, health education and behavioral science.

The Web site for the Stanford Patient Education Research Center is at http://www.stanford.edu/group/perc/perchome.html

The symposium is the first public event sponsored by the Health Sciences Partnerships in Interdisciplinary Clinical Education (HSPICE) program, which is partly funded by the University Initiatives Fund. HSPICE is directed by a leadership committee that draws on all of the UW health sciences schools and related units. Dr. Pam Mitchell, associate dean of research and Elizabeth Soule professor in the School of Nursing, chairs the group.

The HSPICE program brings together several interdisciplinary efforts in health sciences, including opportunities for students to have rotations on intersdisciplinary care teams at Harborview Medical Center and in community settings. Several conjoint courses are included under the HSPICE umbrella, and a monthly interdisciplinary care seminar is offered, supplemented by Web-based interaction among participants.

The May 5 symposium begins at 10:30 a.m. with an introduction by Mitchell and Dr. Richard Root, vice chair of the UW Department of Medicine, chief of the medical service at Harborview and chair of the symposium planning committee. Dr. Paul Robertson, dean of the School of Dentistry and chair of the Board of Health Sciences Deans, will welcome the audience.

Lorig’s presentation at 10:45 will be followed by a question and answer period. At 11:30 there will be a panel on effective strategies for weight management, with a focus on healthy eating.

A lunch break from 12:15 to 1 p.m. will give participants a chance to visit patient education displays in the lobby.

At 1 p.m., a panel on coping successfully with a chronic illness begins and the third panel, on promoting mental health and dealing successfully with depression, will be from 1:45 to 2:30.

No pre-registration is needed to attend the conference and participants may attend only some of the sessions if they wish. For more information, contact program coordinator Bertine Easterling at (206) 731-8973 or by e-mail at bertine@u.washington.edu

Claire Dietz