Art Frank IMAGINE Project: The Alberta healthcare system is huge, idisjointed and wildly uneven

What does it mean to be patient- centred in healthcare and why does it matter?
That’s what Art Frank, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary and professor at Betanien College, Bergen, Norway, tackled as he addressed the nearly 400 participants who attended the launch forum for the IMAGINE Project at the Foothills Campus on Jan. 22, 2015.
The system is patient-centred when providers understand that everything they do is about THE patient, the individual on the other end of the conversation, said Frank.
“Healthcare is patient-centred when it recognizes the particular needs of specific people and when it’s willing to adapt institutional procedures, protocols to fit those individual needs,” he explained.
That is the ideal, but not always the reality, added Frank, who used the personal experience of friends to explain the difference between the two.