Making a difference for caregivers!

MaryAnne Sterling (@SterlingHIT) and I were honored to discover that we had been invited to give the first presentation to the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) about caregivers-Supporting Family Caregivers on the Front Lines through Health Information Technology link. 40,000 people attended the conference last week and about 200 attended our presentation. HIMSS is waking up to the 93 million unpaid caregivers in this country. What would happen to the cost of health care if 1% could no longer provide care? We urged health care professionals to actively partner with the family health team, provide ready access to health information about the person at the center of care to caregivers, and treat caregivers as you would the person caring for you.  This beachhead was made possible by several years of work of a small but active group of members of HIMSS’ Connected Patient Committee and the Society for Participatory Medicine. Thanks to many of our readers who contributed to our material. Making a difference is so cool.