Are patients ‘experts’? Does lived experience automatically mean one has expertise? What are we really saying, or accomplishing, when we call patients experts?  We think about these questions and talk to Frank Gavin about his article on healthydebate.ca. Frank isn’t sold on the ‘expert’ label as it applies to patient experience, and he explains why in our conversation.


[Download transcript]


Mentioned in this episode:

The risks of equating ‘lived experience’ with patient expertise by Frank Gavin

How do patients attain equal status if they’re seen as ‘non-expert’? by Francine Buchanan

In Part 1, Frank mentions a cartoon/meme that describes a particular physician-patient dynamic. We couldn't find it in cartoon form but the idea was popularized in this tweet: https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1000308119115915264

Frank Gavin on Twitter
Francine Buchanan on Twitter

Twitter Mentions