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Better healthcare under spotlight
caycompass.com, 27 September, 2012
Two speakers at this year’s annual 20/20 Healthcare Conference will
be looking at ways to ensure that care of the patient is always placed
as a top priority for healthcare providers.
The theme of this year’s conference, which is set to take place from
18-20 October at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman is “Patient-Centred
Care: Achieving Quality Outcomes” and both speakers bring a wealth
of expertise to the table when it comes to discussing this theme.
Steven Thompson, chief executive officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine
International and senior vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine,
will be analysing the issue of improving the health status of individuals
and communities via a number of different strategies, while Cynthia
Hastings-James, co-founder of Cookson James Loyalty Inc. and BestLifeRewarded.com,
will be examining how incentives can drive health behaviour change.
Mr. Thompson has more than 25 years’ experience in various positions
within academic medicine and academic health centres. He says that
over the past decade there has been growing attention paid to the
development of strategies to improve the health status of individuals
and communities.
“This arises from a growing number of reports that highlight metrics
which indicate health status and healthcare delivery are not achieving
the outcomes desired in a cost-effective manner,” he explained. “A
number of approaches have been developed with the emphasis of placing
the patient at the core, to improve quality and outcomes. These include
the development of patient and family centred care, patient-centred
medical homes, guided care and the Aliki Initiative, which has been
established to educate healthcare professionals in patient-centred
care delivery.”
Mr. Thompson said that an early review of these initiatives highlights
the need for improved patient care infrastructure, care provider training,
patient education and informatics support.
“While there is little dispute that this is the direction that must
be taken, it is increasingly clear that thoughtful analysis and preparation
are required to achieve the desired results,” he said.
Ms Hastings-James is another expert in her field, enjoying more than
15 years of innovation in health promotion, medical education and
marketing, with a particular focus on digital solutions. Following
on from many successes in the digital field, Ms Hastings-James co-founded
Cookson James Loyalty Inc and launched the BestLifeRewarded health
incentive platform, which has been credited with changing the face
of Canadian healthcare by producing a personalised focus on the end
health consumer.
As such, she Hastings-James looks forward to sharing her knowledge
on the use of incentives with patient-centred approaches to improve
intrinsic motivation and overall wellness with the 20/20 Healthcare
Conference audience. In addition, Ms Hastings-James will also be speaking
as a panellist during the workplace wellness breakout session.
Breakout sessions are an exciting new addition to this year’s conference
and will fall into three sessions taking place throughout the three-day
event, with a focus on oncology and paediatric care as well as workplace
wellness.
The Minister for Health, Environment, Youth, Sports & Culture,
Mark Scotland, is delighted that these international speakers are
able to contribute to this year’s event.
“We are extremely grateful to all of the experts, both local and international,
who have kindly agreed to share their expertise with us at our national
healthcare conference,” he said. “Both Ms Hastings-James and Mr Thompson
are renowned experts in their field and will provide us with a tremendous
amount of knowledge that we can digest and use in the planning of
our healthcare policies, moving forward.”
The conference is free and open to the public and everybody who is
interested in healthcare in the Cayman Islands is encouraged to attend
and enjoy the exciting topics and lively discussion that will be presented.
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