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WPSD Webinar on Diagnosis

WPSD Webinar on Diagnosis

On September 18, 2024, in alignment with the World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) theme, “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety,” the World Patients Alliance (WPA) hosted an impactful webinar on the critical topic of diagnosis. The webinar, titled “Diagnosis: Get it Right, Make it Safe,” gathered leading experts, patient advocates, and public health professionals to discuss innovative strategies, share best practices, and highlight the importance of accurate and timely diagnoses for improving patient safety.

The webinar covered key aspects of diagnostic safety, including patient experiences, recent updates from the healthcare sector, and collaborative approaches to minimizing diagnostic errors. Each presentation contributed valuable insights into enhancing the diagnostic process to reduce preventable harm in healthcare settings.

• Helen Haskell MA, Chair of the WPA Patient Safety & Quality Council, opened the webinar with remarks emphasizing the global importance of diagnosis in patient safety. She framed the conversation by discussing how diagnostic errors account for nearly 16% of preventable harm in healthcare systems and highlighted the urgency of improving diagnostic accuracy to save lives and ensure better outcomes. She also played a patient safety video: When you visit your doctor, how do you know you are getting the right diagnosis?
• Dinaaz Lentin, a Healthcare Safety Advocate from Australia, shared her powerful personal story about the impact of delayed diagnosis. Her presentation underscored the profound effects that misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can have on a patient's life, both physically and emotionally. Dinaaz highlighted the need for patients and families to be active participants in their healthcare journeys to ensure earlier interventions and better outcomes.
• Gordon D. Schiff MD, Associate Director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, delivered a thought-provoking session on the latest trends and research in diagnostic safety. He provided an overview of emerging strategies in healthcare to improve diagnostic processes and highlighted the role of teamwork, communication, and technology in preventing diagnostic errors. Dr. Schiff’s evidence-based insights gave attendees a clear understanding of how healthcare systems can address the root causes of diagnostic mistakes.
• Cecilia Nantume, a Public Health Professional from Uganda and Member of the WPA African Region Steering Committee, shared a personal and professional perspective on the challenges faced by patients in resource-limited settings. She emphasized the need for inclusive and equitable healthcare practices to ensure that all patients, regardless of geographic or economic circumstances, receive timely and accurate diagnoses. Her presentation also underscored the importance of patient advocacy in improving healthcare systems.
• The Q&A session provided an interactive platform for participants to engage with the speakers. Attendees posed thoughtful questions, sparking lively discussions around practical approaches to improving diagnosis, how to involve patients in the diagnostic process, and strategies for healthcare professionals to reduce errors.
• Andrew Spiegel Esq., Chair of the WPA, wrapped up the event by thanking all the speakers and participants for their valuable contributions. He emphasized the need for ongoing collaboration between healthcare providers, patients, and advocates to advance diagnostic safety. Andrew reiterated the WPA’s commitment to patient-centered care and encouraged attendees to continue advocating for safer healthcare practices.

Key Takeaways
• Patient-Centered Approach: Engaging patients and their families in the diagnostic process is critical for early intervention and error prevention.
• Improving Systems: Healthcare systems must adopt advanced technologies, better communication strategies, and collaborative practices to reduce diagnostic errors.
• Equity in Healthcare: Ensuring equitable access to diagnostic resources, particularly in low-resource settings, is essential for improving global patient safety.
• Ongoing Dialogue: Continuous discussions between healthcare professionals, patients, and advocates are necessary to keep diagnostic safety at the forefront of patient care.

Conclusion
The WPSD webinar on diagnosis successfully highlighted the urgent need for improvements in diagnostic safety and fostered meaningful dialogue between experts and patient advocates. The WPA remains committed to advancing patient safety through such initiatives, ensuring that patients worldwide benefit from safer, more accurate diagnoses. The event reinforced the slogan, “Get it right, make it safe!" and empowered participants to take action in their respective roles to improve diagnostic outcomes.

Tentative Agenda

Speakers

Andrew Spiegel

Andrew Spiegel has nearly two decades of experience in the patient advocacy arena. Spiegel co-founded the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, now the leading US based national patient advocacy organization dedicated to colon cancer. Mr. Spiegel, an attorney, besides being a co-founder of the organization and longtime board member of the Alliance became CEO in January of 2008 and he ran the CCA for nearly 5 years, before undertaking his next venture, the Global Colon Cancer Association (GCCA). Currently, Spiegel is co-founder and executive director of the GCCA, an international patient advocacy organization. This organization is an international community of nearly 50 colon cancer patient advocacy organizations and stakeholders dedicated to end the worldwide suffering of the 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths. In addition to his work in the colon cancer community, Spiegelis an active advocate for health care policies both in the US and now worldwide. He is a co-founder and currently serves on the steering committee of the Alliance for Safe Biologic Medicines (ASBM). He is on the Board of Directors, and in December 2014 was elected to Chair, of the Digestive Disease National Coalition (DDNC),a founding member of the Coalition to Increase Clinical Trial Participation and in May of 2016 he began a three year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Alliance of Patient Organizations (IAPO) where he chaired the fundraising committee. Spiegel has won multiple awards for his work in patient advocacy. Spiegel is a 1986 graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with minors in English and Philosophy. He is a 1989 graduate of the Widener University School of Law. After working for a Philadelphia litigation firm, Spiegel opened his own law firm in 1995.

Cecilia Nantume

Cecilia Nantume Okiring is a seasoned Nurse-Midwife and Public Health professional dedicated to advancing patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare. With a robust background in research, clinical care, policy analysis, and advocacy, Cecilia has spearheaded initiatives to enhance care quality and safeguard patient well-being. Her work includes implementing safety protocols, conducting quality assessments, and developing improvement frameworks. Notably, Cecilia has driven significant advancements in patient safety through research, such as using service disruption assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic to shape continuity guidelines and evaluating self-injection uptake to refine patient support systems for safer contraceptive use. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Makerere University and a Master of Public Health with a focus on health economics, policy, and management from Karolinska Institute. Cecilia also has training in policy development and advocacy for global health. Currently, she serves as an independent research and policy advocacy consultant in Uganda, working with patient organizations to promote equitable access to quality care and enhance patient safety. Additionally, Cecilia is a member of the WPA African Region Steering Committee and a Patient Safety Consultant with the Community Health and Information Network.

Helen Haskell

Since the medical error death of her young son Lewis in 2000, Helen Haskell has worked to bring the patient voice to healthcare safety and quality. Helen is president of the American nonprofit patient organizations Mothers Against Medical Error and Consumers Advancing Patient Safety and is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement senior fellow. She is Chair of WPA Patient Safety and Quality Council and former co-chair of the WHO Patients for Patient Safety Advisory Group and a recently retired board member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She is a member of the board of directors of the International Society for Rapid Response Systems, the Patient Safety Action Network and is on the steering committee of Consumers United for Evidence-Based Medicine. She serves on many other boards and committees, including quality and safety committees at the National Quality Forum, AHRQ, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She was a winner of Consumer Reports’ first National Excellence in Advocacy award in 2011 and was named by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” in 2009 and by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of 50 leaders in patient safety in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She has written numerous journal articles and patient educational materials on patient safety and patient engagement and is co-editor of an interprofessional textbook using patient narrative to teach patient safety and professional competencies. She has been featured in dozens of articles and videos on patient safety, including Transparent Health’s Lewis Blackman Story, shown in hospitals and medical and nursing schools across the world.

Dinaaz Lentin

Dinaaz is a respected global keynote speaker and patient safety advocate, known for her powerful storytelling and transformative insights. Her journey from personal adversity—enduring 30 operations due to medical errors, including surgery on the wrong leg—fuels her mission to revolutionize healthcare systems worldwide. Dinaaz's experiences give her a unique perspective, making her an invaluable advisor to healthcare organizations aiming to reduce medical errors and foster a patient-centered culture. Her influence spans continents, with notable engagements including the World Health Organization’s Patient Safety Conference, and collaborations with prestigious clients like the Australian government. Her memoir, Battle Scars, is widely recognized in the medical community, with calls to integrate it into healthcare education globally.

Dr. Gordon Schiff

Dr. Gordon Schiff is a practicing general internist and Associate Director of Brigham and Women’s Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Quality and Safety Director for the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Center for Primary Care, and Associate Professor of Medicine at HMS. He has published widely in the areas of medication and diagnosis safety and was a reviewer and contributor to the 2015 National Academy of Medicine (IOM) Report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care. He is recipient of an award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for Medical Humanism to study professional-patient boundaries and relationships, the 2019 Mark Graber Diagnosis Safety Award by the Society for Improving Diagnosis in Medicine, the 2020 John Eisenberg Award by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and Joint Commission, and 2021 American Public Health Association (APHA) Donabedian Quality Award. He chairs the editorial board of Medical Care, as well serves on editorial boards of the Journal Public Health Policy and BMJ Quality and Safety in Healthcare. He is currently the principal investigator for an AHRQ Diagnostic Center for Excellence (DCE) that aims at learning from the experience of patients diagnosed with late stage cancer, to understand their diagnostic journey and identify opportunities for more timely and reliable cancer diagnosis.

Date

Sep 18 2024

Expired!

Time

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

WPSD Webinar on Diagnosis

Tentative Agenda

Speakers

Date

Time

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