This site is intended for discussions about healthcare, for today and for the future. Some of the topics are lead user patients*, digitalisation of healthcare, and selfcare.
*A lead user patient (spetspatient in Swedish) is a patient or family member who take a larger responsibility for their own health and well-being. They meet their health related challenges in a constructive and knowledge-based way, while taking their physical and mental abilities as well as capacity into account.
Lead patients make use of their own experiences to improve healthcare, on all levels of the system, for the sake of both themselves and other patients. They often meet their challenges in a creative manner and we think that they can be seen as innovators. Often you do not become a lead patient by choice, it is something that you do to be able to manage and navigate the complex healthcare system.
The word “spetspatient” was coined by Sara Riggare, who is also responsible for this site. She felt that there was a need for a word in Swedish to describe all the patients and family members she had met over the years, who in spite of often significant health challenges do as much as they can to help themselves or a loved one.