Collaborative Learning has gained some track in recent years across all types of business, educational and public service disciplines. Not least in its potential for improved and more communal health care.

A process whereby those collaborating assimilate new information and relate this to a framework of prior knowledge and benefit from diverse viewpoints it is ideal for harnessing the great diversity of health related knowledge that exists in communities, institutions and individuals. Knowledge that unfortunately, is seldom unified.

Collaborative Learning flourishes in the dynamic of social environments and from conceptualizing multiple input. Regional health departments, universities, local practices have all recognized the value of this to primary health care. At cChange we want to enable and encourage our members to rapidly connect and create these multi-disciplinary exchanges using an open-source network.

You can find out more about Collaborative Learning, follow articles and see what members are saying.

Palliative Care involves many difficult and highly sensitive aspects, the necessity for strong communication and intuitive skills and sensitivity toward patients, families and colleagues at the most distressing times. The importance of well-trained professionals providing this care and the institutional structure to support them has become increasingly important. However, many health care providers, including many experienced and compassionate physicians, do not have the required skill-sets and support system.

Many cChange in Health Care members recognize the need to continue the improvement in and recognition of specialized training for Palliative Care providers. As a matter of policy and better practice they want to ensure an adequate educational structure for the training of future and current health professionals.

Discover more and see how cChange members are adding their considerable experience to the continuing development of Palliative Care Training.

Diversity is a broad concept, embracing culture, belief, background, disability, gender, race and ethnicity, as well as under-served and marginalized populations. Diversity also extends to the wide variety of settings in which care takes place and the multi-disciplinary nature of professional practice.

Modern society and effective health care depend on diversity in the profession and the ability to deal with a diversity of patients and settings. Through sharing their experiences and knowledge, cChange in Health Care members collaborate to expand and improve their abilities and effectiveness: For the communities they serve, students they teach and their associates and colleagues.

Discover a shared experience approach to Diversity in Health Care.

“Listen to the patient: He is telling you the diagnosis," Sir William Osler counseled his fellow physicians at the beginning of the 20th century. Anecdotal reports and academic research are replete with evidence that patients of doctors who listen well have better clinical outcomes.

A cChange core Topic that recognizes the importance of psycho-social components of disease and that the good health care begins with communication. But it is not just the patient that benefits, physicians and health providers enjoy much better patient relationships and job satisfaction when engaged in an open dialogue. Long-term patient/health provider relationships provide more accurate information and diagnosis and activated patients become more involved in their health and rehabilitation.

More on Narrative Health Care - articles, links, discussion.

Building on the detailed White Paper developed by Michael Fine, MD and Shannon Brownlee, MS, the delivery system for primary health care must first be restructured if the benefits of universal primary care are to be economically sustainable. The delivery infrastructure is one part of an interlocking whole and the plan for health care improvement cannot be made piecemeal.

Primary care can deliver the greatest health gains at the most manageable costs and primary care can form the secure foundation on which other health services can be layered. The program calls for building on the concept of the Medical Home, creating a mechanism to reduce and eliminate health disparities, and begin the long overdue process of fostering true health security through the creation of a primary care infrastructure.

Sign the petition or donate funds here.

Find out how the Program for National Renewal is progressing through cChange membership collaboration.