Minimally disruptive medicine – synonyms to inspire the road ahead.

The last few weeks have seen a surge in discussions in the press about minimally disruptive medicine. The Wall Street Journal had a piece as did the Star Tribune in Minnesota here. This press in turn has led to a number of people to reflect about healthcare and to contact our research team to test the model out.

Meanwhile two teams are working on measuring treatment burden, and two reviews are considering how the Cumulative Complexity Model can help understand the (in)efficacy of lifestyle modification interventions and readmission prevention interventions. Much to do everywhere to lift the burden off patients with multiple chronic conditions.

Importantly, I think, our group has been producing some synonyms that begin to draw in the mind’s canvas different paths toward Minimally Disruptive Medicine:

– Palliative care for those far from the end of life – focus on quality of life, function, symptoms, in achieving patient goals

– Geriatrics for the young – be parsimonious, mindful of comorbidity and limited capacity (the younger parallels with frailty and life expectancy)

– Goldilocks (not too much, not too little, just right) – it is not only about reducing healthcare, it is about optimizing the healthcare footprint making sure that under use of desirable interventions is addressed as well.

– Wellness for the sick – emphasize function to increase capacity as part of the strategy to reduce treatment burden.

– Lean consumption for patients – maximize the efficiency of the work of being a patient.

What other parallels can we draw? What else could we learn about these disciplines?

The quest to reduce the healthcare footprint on the lives of individuals and communities presses on. The response from the audience at the 2013 ICSI Colloquium in St Paul, MN was quite telling: clinicians wondering how to overcome the impotence they feel as they comply with guidelines, care processes, and public reporting that they feel makes them deviate from patient goals; patients echoing my call for patients to lead a revolution in healthcare. Indeed, a patient from Texas, who pertinently had the last word at that ICSI presentation, made an impassionate plea for change, for patient-centered care, for minimally disruptive medicine. She then proposed: Let Patients Lead.  This moved me and reminded me of a friend’s friend who in reviewing the concept said that he felt this should be renamed Maximally Generous Medicine. Another synonym to inspire our journey.