Health Attitude: A new book by Dr. John R. Patrick

It’s not disease, dollars, or doctors standing in the way of safe and affordable healthcare. A new health attitude for patients, providers, payers, and policymakers is the solution.

Health Attitude Description

After John R. Patrick’s career at IBM, he took a seat on the board of a teaching hospital. He was surprised to learn how hospitals and physicians lagged at adopting information technology, and appalled at the needless complexity of healthcare delivery processes. Instead of shaking his head and walking away, Patrick took action. 

The result is a revealing look at the cultural, attitudinal, and technological barriers holding back the United States from achieving a more affordable, accessible, and effective healthcare system. Patrick sees the inability to share personal healthcare information between hospitals, specialists, and primary care doctors as a major problem. He believes increasing collaboration for more effective healthcare is not a technical problem, it is attitudinal. The reliance of the uninsured on expensive emergency care instead of preventive care is not limited by healthcare capabilities, but by the attitude of healthcare policymakers and politicians.

Patrick argues we need new attitudes about healthcare to achieve true reform. His vision includes a system focused on patients and uses an accountability oriented, fee-for-value model. Patrick promotes an attitude that provides incentives for wellness, not sickness. 

Text of Back of Book Cover

Despite having the most expensive healthcare in the world, Americans do not always get better health outcomes than people in other developed nations. The care we receive is expensive and not always safe. 

In Health Attitude, John R. Patrick focuses his experience and expertise exploring this conundrum. He arrives at a fascinating conclusion, improving healthcare delivery and outcomes is not a technological or fiscal problem, it’s a matter of attitude.  

In terms that even newcomers to the healthcare policy debate will understand, Health Attitude reveals the key attitude problems in healthcare culture that drastically impact cost and quality. Patrick does not stop there; he promotes a vision and set of solutions to help us become healthier and happier with our health and our healthcare system. 

Dr. John R. Patrick holds degrees in electrical engineering, management, law, and health administration. He has more than four decades of experience in business and ten years serving on the board of a hospital.

Author Biography

John R. Patrick is President of Attitude LLC and former VP of Internet Technology at IBM. John was a founding member of the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in 1994, a founding member and past chairman of the Global Internet Project, and a member of the Internet Society and the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. John has served on a number of boards including Danbury Hospital from 2003 to 2013. He is currently a board member at OCLC and a member of the WCHN Biomedical Research Institute Advisory Council. John is the author of Net Attitude, published by Perseus Publishing. He lives in Danbury, Connecticut and Palm Coast, Florida with his wife Joanne. His website is at johnpatrick.com and you can contact him at [email protected].