AbstractsMedical & Health Science

The expectancy of patient living with chronic disease has improved significantly in the recent years due to advances in medical sciences. To address the burden of this growing demand of care, patient engagement is considered crucial as it contributes to improve health outcomes and control healthcare costs. However, many gaps still exist for its implementation starting from the lack of a shared definition and shared guidelines for medical practice based on the direct patients' care experience. In the light of this premises this dissertation will propose a sequential research design generally aimed at improving the knowledge and understanding of patient engagement and its implications for the medical practice and professionalism. To answer the overall aim of this thesis both literature reviews and qualitative methodology were used. Chapter 1 was aimed to set scene and give the readers an overview of the global cultural and societal scenario that justifies the need to deal with the topic of patient engagement. Chapter 2 and 3 consist in in-depth literature reviews aimed at shading light on the concepts featuring the participatory medicine movement and, more specifically, the one of patient engagement. An in-depth qualitative study according to the grounded theory principles was conducted and reported in chapter 4 and was aimed at deepening the heart failure patient’s perspective towards engagement in their care in order to build and experience-based model of this phenomenon. The last two chapters, based on the insights emerged from both the literature analysis and the grounded theory study, were aimed at discussing the implications of patient engagement for the clinical decision making process (chapter 5), and for training health professionals in patient engagement strategies and improving the effectiveness of their communication and relational habits with this aim (chapter 6).; In un contesto in cui il coinvolgimento e la partecipazione dei consumatori/clienti di prestazioni sanitarie è oggi più che mai all’ordine del giorno, il concetto di “patient engagement” si è sempre più imposto nella letteratura scientifica e manageriale come call to action in risposta alle sfide epidemiologiche – legate all’aumento della cronicità – ed economiche – connesse all’aumento dei costi sanitari e alla riduzione delle risorse disponibili - a cui i sistemi sanitari contemporanei devono necessariamente rispondere per evitare il collasso. Per ciò, a fronte di una letteratura sul tema ancora parziale e frammentata, definire il concetto di “patient engagement” e le sue implicazioni a vari livelli diviene cruciale per passare da una dichiarazione di intenti ad una concreta strategia di azioni volte a promuoverlo. Alla luce di queste premesse, il progetto di ricerca ambisce a rispondere ad una necessità fondativa sia da un punto di vista teroico che empirico di questo concetto e ad evidenziare possibili linee di sviluppo e ricadute applicative per una rinnovata professionalizzazione dei clinici che devono oggi riadattare le proprie…