Patient Advisors Network

Celebrating 10 Years of Impact at the Patient Advisors Network 🎉

Ten years ago, on April Fools’ Day 2016, the Patient Advisors Network (PAN) officially incorporated — our birthday, even if the world didn’t meet us until January 2017 when our website launched. I’ve always felt that April Fools’ Day suits us perfectly.

Our Community is full of people working hard to bring big and small changes to healthcare – and every positive change moves the needle to better healthcare for all.

Over these last 10 years, we have grown in numbers, but not just within PAN. Our impact is being felt, though we still battle tokenism and a lack of understanding of our value in making change. As an independent organization – not a patient organization in the usual sense but one of patients and caregivers who work collaboratively within the system, PAN remains unique. Our independence, valued collective wisdom, has led more and more healthcare organizations to choose to augment their own patient partner engagements with PAN collaborations for larger-scale projects.

This is leading PAN – and that’s all of you – to have impacts on these collaborations.

The PAN project teams are drawn from the Community. Those team members read and sometimes post on the Forum, talk with P/CPs colleagues both on projects and through the PAN webinars, and so informally gather a range of perspectives. Some projects involve reaching out to the Community through surveys and focus groups for a more formal gathering of diverse experiences. For all of that participation, we thank you.

Warmly,
Alies Maybee, Chair & PAN Board of Directors

Happy New Year from the PAN Team. If you have are not already a PAN member, please consider joining us.

https://www.patientadvisors.ca/patient-caregiver-partners/membership-application/

Would you like to know what PAN has accomplished over the last year? Please check out our Annual Report.

“The Patient Advisors Network (PAN) Annual Report 2024 – 2025 reflects on the past year, highlighting milestones, financial resilience, and strategic growth directions for the Patient Advisors Network (PAN).
In 2024-2025, PAN focused on community engagement, capacity building, and partnerships to enhance people-centered healthcare.”

PAN Annual Report 2024-2025 EN (1).pdf

Have you read PAN’s report on “Reimaging the research landscape”? PAN has had a few opportunities to share the insights from this report. We presented at the OSSU research day and we also recently co-presented with researchers on an OSSU webinar. I will share the YouTube links in the comments.

Access the full report here.

https://www.patientadvisors.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reimagining-the-research-landscape-a-PAN-Report-FINAL.pdf

An excellent summary of the opening plenary panel discussion at , the nation’s largest annual conference focused on digital health.

Our very own PAN member Alies Maybee provided the patient perspective.

Read Pat Rich words here:

LinkedIn This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

A few of our members, including our Board Co-leads Donna Rubenstein & Alies Maybee will be attending Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research co-presenting with researchers they have been working with. Will you be there?

In a recent podcast Artificial Intelligence in Medical Systems Society (AIMSS) Sacha Davis and Ehsan Misaghi talked with PAN members Alies Maybee and Chris Johnston about the impact of AI for patients.

They highlighted opportunities for patient/caregiver partners to influence the direction and use of AI in healthcare.

AI brings huge potential—but also ethical, legal, and social implications. Patient input is essential to ensure these technologies reflect real-world needs.

Digital health including AI is not new for PAN—we’ve been involved in multiple projects since 2019.

🎧 Take a listen to learn more. From Insight to Impact: Why Patient Networks Matter: https://lnkd.in/eZ8z5KcZ

September is World Alzheimer's Month: A time for education and action.

My mom has dementia. A form of Alzhemimer’s. Its become difficult to have discussions with her as her short term memory is not working.

I had learned a lot from the Alzheimer’s course I took a couple of years ago. To keep up to date I follow McMaster Optimal Aging Portal.

Featured Resources
eLearning: Dementia Risk Reduction
eLearning: Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep
eLearning: Weight Management, Diet, and Nutrition
eLearning: Cognitive and Social Activity
eLearning: Smoking and Alcohol
eLearning: Blood Vessel Health

Check out their resources and other valuable information.

September is World Alzheimer's Month: A time for education and action September marks World Alzheimer's Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness and understanding about Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia globally. Dementia is a growing public health concern worldwide, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common form.

Are you following us on Linkedin? Check out our page.

PAN - Patient Advisors Network | LinkedIn PAN - Patient Advisors Network | 519 followers on LinkedIn. A community of practice for Patient/Caregiver Partners | The Patient Advisors Network (PAN) is a national community of practice for patient/caregiver partners - patient and family advisors committed to improving healthcare for all Canadians...

🌟 Celebrating Alies Maybee & PAN's Global Impact 🌟

PAN’s co-founder and co-chair Alies Maybee received the 'Made with Patients' global award at the Patient Engagement Open Forum in Italy. This accolade celebrates PAN’s unique patient-caregiver partnership model and our drive for healthcare that’s equitable and accessible to all.

The introduction of our "Reimagining the Research Landscape" report at the forum initiated important discussions on the future of patient involvement in healthcare against the backdrop of AI, climate change, and potential health crises.

This honour acknowledges the entire PAN community’s efforts through the creation of a grassroots patient network community of practice and actively partnering in health research to improve healthcare for everyone.

Read more on our blog at https://bit.ly/3zPSTVD

Your voice matters: How can you contribute to reshaping healthcare? Share, comment, or message us to discuss how we can collectively forge ahead.

PAN Co-founder Receives Global Award for Patient Engagement! | Patient Advisors Network Discover the Patient Advisors Network (PAN), a self-funded non-profit leading the way in patient engagement and caregiving partner support. Co-founded by aw ...

Have you reviewed Patient Advisors Network Report.

This report was created from our analysis of the survey results of patient/caregiver partners done to support the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) SPOR Patient Engagement Platform refresh process. See the full illustrated report below.

https://www.patientadvisors.ca/2024/04/02/why-do-we-often-feel-like-outsiders/