Patient advocacy: Navigating the healthcare environment to protect your weight loss goals

Abstract:

Healthcare has gotten complicated, especially for patients who are trying to make informed  decisions around their healthcare goals, and especially around obesity and weight loss. There’s a lot of noise out there. From provider-patient interactions to product misinformation, to navigating the complex healthcare environment, it can be overwhelming for patients who are just trying to reach their health-related goals.

In this presentation, I will discuss best practices for patient advocacy for: 1) optimal provider-patient interactions that are focused on obesity; 2) how to evaluate the options for weight loss; and 3) how to navigate the healthcare environment to protect your weight loss goals.

Biography:

Dr. Gretchen Holmes is an award-winning and accomplished senior-level hospital executive, Graduate Medical Education (GME) DIO, Clinical Trials Leader, and an experienced social science researcher/methodologist who is driven by her passion to bring humanity back to medicine by fostering a learning environment that teaches future providers to be compassionate and competent and to embrace patient centered-care. She earned her BS and MA degrees from New York University and her PhD in Health Communication from the University of Kentucky with a Graduate Certificate in Medical Behavioral Science. She currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Patient Experience.