ABOUT THE PATIENT VOICES NETWORK
Patient Voices Network is a group of patients from two family practices in Buffalo, Jefferson Family Medicine and Jericho Road Family Practice. Our vision is to create “a community of educated and involved patients working hand in hand with physicians in making decisions about their own health care.” We were formed in 2010 in partnership with the Primary Care Research Institute in the Department of Family Medicine at UB.
We have taken part in lots of different projects over the last six years. In October, we are hosting the Concerned About You: Breast Cancer Awareness Walk & Wellness Event – check out the News & Events Page for more information!
For the first Patient Voices project, we designed an intervention to increase colonoscopy screening among people like us. In order to participate in the project, we had to have multiple chronic diseases such as diabetes. Living with those conditions gives us a unique perspective into what is good, and bad, about medical care. We also understand that there are many other things that influence health care.
For example, not having transportation might prevent a person from getting to a colonoscopy appointment. So our intervention was focused on identifying those roadblocks and helping people move past them so they can take advantage of preventive screenings that are proven to save lives. This is so important to us because we believe that everyone should have the resources that help them get healthy.
