What is an activated patient?
A patient who is activated is a patient who has the knowledge, skills, and confidence for managing their health and health care. Patients who are activated often have
  • Better experiences with their healthcare provider
  • Better outcomes
  • Lower costs
Why is this important?
With the cost of healthcare rising, it is more important than ever for patients to take control.  Activated patients use information to take an active role in the decisions around their health care. When you have the right information, you will be in a position to demand high-quality services from your health care provider, choose treatment options wisely, and become active participants and self-managers in your own health and health care.
  • My questions and concerns are answered
  • My care is coordinated,
  • My values and goals are what drive my health plans.
Other fast facts:
  • 25% of health consumers now have deductibles of $1,000 or more.
  • 41% of health consumers surveyed would switch health providers if they could access their own health records.
  • 34% of health consumers surveyed would switch insurers to save on premium costs.
Sources: The Commonwealth Fund, April 2013, HealthPocket online survey, 2013; Accenture report "U.S. Research Findings Consumer Health Survey," Accenture, Sept. 16, 2013.

Resources for the Activated Patient

Patient Voices and Advice.  Watch a number of interesting videos that will help you become an activated patient.  These videos talk about patients taking control of their own healthcare 
Health as a Learning Journey. Figuring out what to do when something goes wrong with our health often means that, together with our doctors, we “experiment” with a series of treatments and lifestyle changes to see what works best to meet our goals. 
How to Make the Most of Your Doctor Visit
From the Center for Advancing Health, this two-minute video shares tips for how to effectively describe your symptoms in four key steps. Being prepared with this information will allow you and your doctor to discuss the best treatment for you, including next steps.
Choosing Wisely
  • An important resource that can help you ensure you are getting the right care delivered at the right time.
  • Participating organizations have created lists of “Things Providers and Patients Should Question” which include evidence-based recommendations that should be discussed to help make wise decisions about the most appropriate care based on a patients’ individual situation.
Flip The Clinic
Flip the Clinic is a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project to re-imagine the medical encounter between patients and care providers.They believe that new tools, technologies, and strategies can empower people to be more informed and more engaged when they walk into the doctor’s office and better equipped to improve their health when they walk out the door. Their goal is to create a specific set of practices that will improve the medical encounter, and to inspire others to invent new ways to get more out of their clinic visit.
Women of Impact: Addressing Health Care's Broken Windows
In July 2013, a small group of executive-level women from diverse sectors of the health care industry came together for a unique meeting to articulate their desired personal legacies, and to apply the concept of collective impact to advance those legacies in addressing complex problems in health care.

The group, which has since become known as the Women of Impact, agreed on a shared goal: to realign the health care system to meet the needs of all Americans, recognizing that the people who need care come from all walks of life.
End of Life. 
The goal of this site is to empower consumers and healthcare professionals with easy-to-access, simple-to-understand information and resources to make educated decisions about end-of-life care.