Celebrating Those Who’ve Made a Difference in Healthcare

The annual HealthLeaders magazine “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better” issue has arrived in print and the expanded version is now online–it features a range of people who’ve made a difference, including Atul Gawande, MD, whose New Yorker article, The Cost Conundrum, was required reading for anyone who wanted to better understand healthcare costs and reform.

There are also some names on the list that are less well-known–but no less notable. I interviewed two of the top 20: patient engagement advocate Dave deBronkart and his primary care physician, Daniel Sands, MD, an early advocate of patient engagement and using technology to improve the patient experience.

Patient/physician relations: Dave deBronkart (left) and his physician, Daniel Sands, MD. (Photograph courtesy Dave deBronkart and BIDMC.)

I spoke to deBronkart and Sands together for the HealthLeaders 20 issue and it was clear that their relationship was much more evolved than the stereotypical paternalistic physician and passive patient. They are more like partners–sharing information with each other and spreading their passion for patient engagement to others as well. In fact, there were times during the interview that they finished each others’ sentences. I think you get a sense of their relationship and how they interact from the photo on the left, taken at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where Sands practices.

There are expanded articles about each of the “HealthLeaders 20” in the online version of the feature. Among them: an inventor, a volunteer pilot who transports patients to and from medical appointments, a green CEO, and an advocate for patient-centered care.