The George Washington University recently featured Professor Emerita Judith Hibbard in a blog post recapping her TEDMED #GreatChallenges discussion, "Examining the Case for Patient Activation Measures".  Sponsored by The Milken Institute School of Public Health at GWU, the forum brought together a panel of experts to discuss the Patient Activation Measure (PAM), a self-assessment tool for medical patients that Hibbard developed in collaboration with other UO colleagues. Hibbard is a faculty member in the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management.

“Hibbard explained that patients who have lower activation scores tend to feel overwhelmed with the task of managing health, have little confidence in their ability to do so, may be discouraged because of experiences of failure, and may not understand their role in the care process,” the blog post stated in its “Key Insights” section. “Understanding a patient’s level of activation helps clinicians tailor care plans for each patient that can increase engagement in their health management. Dr. Hibbard noted, ‘The idea is … to help people by breaking things down into smaller steps when they’re less activated … and what we have observed is when people do start to experience success their motivation increases.’ “