Patient advisory boards engage patients in their own care

“There are studies that have demonstrated that engaged patients who become informed and participate in their own healthcare have better outcomes,” says Kathryn Leonhardt, MD, MPH, patient safety officer and medical director of care management at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee. “We realize we need to find better ways to engage our patients. If patients are not engaged, it’s because we as the healthcare system have not been effective in engaging them. The role of a patient advisory committee is to help us understand, from the patient perspective, which processes and tools can facilitate that engagement.”