No abstract

Before surgery for obesity, most of 54 morbidly obese patients considered their marriage to be good, although marked problems were higher than for a comparison group. One year later, a majority still rated their marriage as good; many reported better relations with their spouses. Sexual function was enhanced. Three years postoperatively (n=30), the incidence of marital harmony had risen to the same level as for the comparison group and sexual functioning continued to be improved. The divorce rate during the three years, however, was somewhat higher, particularly in those marriages originally found to be troubled before surgery. The implications of these findings for the decision to undertake surgery for obesity are discussed.

There is renewed interest in patient engagement in clinical and research settings, creating a need for documenting and publishing lessons learned from efforts to meaningfully engage patients. This paper describes early lessons learned from the development of OCHIN's Patient Engagement Panel (PEP). OCHIN supports a national network of more than 300 community health centers (CHCs) and other primary care settings that serve over 1.5 million patients annually across nearly 20 states. The PEP was conceived in 2009 to harness the CHC tradition of patient engagement in this new era of patient-centered outcomes research and ensure that patients were engaged throughout the lifecycle of our research projects, from inception to dissemination. Developed by clinicians and researchers within our practiced-based research network (PBRN), recruitment of patients to serve as PEP members began in early 2012. The PEP currently has a membership of 17 patients from 3 states. Over the past 24 months, the PEP has been involved with 12 projects. We describe developing the PEP and challenges and lessons learned (e.g., recruitment, funding model, creating value for patient partners, compensation). These lessons learned are relevant not only for research, but also for patient engagement in quality improvement efforts and other clinical initiatives.

No abstract