Patient-centered care initiatives often aim to increase patients’ health literacy, encourage them to participate more actively in treatment decisions, and create a less stressful care delivery environment for them. Increasingly, though, healthcare innovators are aspiring to do much more for (and with) their patients.

One way innovators are pursuing patient-centered objectives is by pairing patients with a dedicated contact with whom they can interact throughout a particular care process, or patients’ tenure with a system. These roles have titles like patient advocate, case manager, or health coach; and their roles vary depending on the health system and patient population. But such roles are not yet commonplace, and there remains much to learn. For healthcare innovators grappling with these questions, the education sector may provide fresh inspiration.

Education innovators are on the path toward new and better solutions for issues arising in the classrooms.  They’ve discovered that the most fruitful learning (like effective health management), doesn’t emerge from standard solutions, but tailored guidance, support and empowerment.

Southern New Hampshire University’s College for America (CfA) exemplifies a particularly successful model. The program enables students to tailor learning goals, activities and pace not only to their professional needs but also to their personal competencies, preferences and real-life circumstances. One of the core mechanisms by which this model does so is of particular relevance to healthcare: the use of coaches to help students successfully navigate through their learning experience. The power of CfA’s coach-facilitated model is evidenced by Southern New Hampshire University’s remarkable transformation from a small, traditional liberal arts college with just 2,500 students in 2003, to one of the U.S.’ biggest, most innovative providers of online education.

Healthcare innovators who seek lessons on the subject of patient-centered care can look not just within, but also outside their own industry for guidance.

Read the full article about health care innovation by Rebecca Fogg at Christensen Institute.