Health care requires a team effort.  An essential part of the health care team are the patients, families and caregivers as the center. And while we have all been patients, families and caregivers at times during our lives, bringing forward those experiences in balance with the many other roles in the health professions education and care delivery continuum can be challenging.

To keep the focus on real engagement, the National Center has invited a team of patients and caregivers to the Nexus Summit to serve as patient advocates throughout the meeting.  These colleagues will be attending workshops and events with an eye toward understanding the current context as well as generating ideas about how to improve our collective work in IPE so that the real voices that need to be at the table are present and heard.

On Tuesday morning, our patient advocates will share some of their personal experiences with care delivery as well as their observations and recommendations about how to improve interprofessional practice and education.  Their ideas will build upon their personal experiences as well as what they learn, see and observe throughout the Nexus Summit meeting.

Our patient advocate panel includes:

• Ted Meyer, a nationally recognized artist, curator, patient, and patient advocate.

• Dominic Quagliozzi, a Los Angeles, CA artist who has had Cystic Fibrosis for over 30 years

• Char Vine, a California-based graphic designer who was partially paralyzed from a spinal cord injury while snowboarding in 2000.

• Vincent Dumez, who has lived with three chronic diseases for more than three decades and has served as the co-director, Office of Collaboration and Patient Partnership and Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal since it was established in 2013

The panel will be moderated by Shelley Cohen Konrad, PhD, LCSW, FNAP, director of the University of New England School of Social Work and founding director of the UNE-Interprofessional Education Collaborative.

Join us for this unfiltered exchange about life as a patient, family or caregiver and what specific strategies can be explored both locally and nationally to ensure patients really are engaged in interprofessional practice and education.

For more experiences about patient experience during the Nexus Summit, consider these options:

Visualizing the Patient Experience: Exploring the Benefits of Using Art and Expression to Teach and Treat

Patient Experience Art Gallery