Conference overview: through the patient's eyes--improvement strategies that work.

BACKGROUND: To promote a continuing dialogue among innovators in patient-centered health care quality assessment and improvement, The Picker Institute (Boston) sponsored conferences in 1995 and 1996, and in July 1997 launched the first of its summer symposia designed primarily for its clients. This overview summarizes the work and ideas presented at The Picker Institute's second summer symposium, "Through the Patient's Eyes: Improvement Strategies That Work," held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 9-10, 1998. ISSUES AND PARTICIPANTS: Plenary session speaker David H. Gustafson, PhD, emphasized four key themes in his discussion of breakthrough improvement and service-focus on customers, innovation through information technology, an empirical methodology for predicting success, and leadership. Donald M. Berwick, MD, argued that it is better to treat the consumer not as an inspector but as an integral element in the total system of health care. In the closing plenary session, John Stone, MD, stated that although physicians like to think of themselves as teachers, it is the patients who teach them with the stories they bring. "Listen to the patient," he concluded. "The patient is telling you the diagnosis." Health care researchers and professionals, representing a wide variety of settings and patient conditions, reported in breakout sessions on their practical experiences using patient-generated data on quality and strategies for improving care. Several presenters described their practical experience using patient-centered measures as part of a coordinated approach to systemwide improvement. In other sessions, presenters offered advice about how to present patient survey data to colleagues and encourage their participation in prioritizing and acting on improvement opportunities.