Illness doesn't wait around to hit us when it's convenient, in fact more often than not we get sick when it's the least convenient, in the middle of the night, right before a big meeting, or the first week of school. When we get sick and are looking for quick answers, it's likely we'll go to urgent care or even the emergency room. However a growing, albeit not new, way to deliver health care called telehealth stands to make situations like this more convenient for people.
We've all received one in the mail, a letter from a health insurance company, hospital, or doctor. They all look different, sometimes there are multiple copies that arrive for days and sometimes they look like a bill, even though they say "This Is Not a Bill" at the top. In this episode of HealthChangers, presented by Cambia Health Solutions, we'll hear two stories from people in health care applying user-centered design to make these letters and bills easier to understand.
In this episode we talk with the founding director of the UCSF Palliative Care program, Dr. Steve Pantilat. Dr. Pantilat is recognized internationally as one of the leading experts on palliative care and he chairs the advisory committee for the Cambia Health Foundation’s Sojourns Scholars program. We talk about what palliative care actually is in practice, how his patients and colleagues define ‘living well’ with serious illness, what caregivers should do for their loved ones, the future of palliative care and his new book, “Life After the Diagnosis; Expert Advice on Living Well with Serious Illness for Patients and Caregivers.”
If you are interested in your Health Care, the Health Changers podcast is a great place to start. It explains what is at the heart of this brand new Cambia Health Solutions podcast. When you are done with this one, check out our first podcast focused on Palliative Care and make sure to leave a comment and rating on iTunes.