Two speakers at this year’s annual 20/20 Healthcare Conference will be looking at ways to ensure that care of the patient is always placed as a top priority for healthcare providers. The theme of this year’s conference, which is set to take place from 18 – 20 October at The Ritz-Carlton, is ‘Patient-Centred Care: Achieving Quality Outcomes’ and both speakers bring a wealth of expertise to the table when it comes to discussing this theme.

Steven Thompson, CEO at Johns Hopkins Medicine International and Senior Vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine will be analysing the issue of improving the health status of individuals and communities via a number of different strategies, while Cynthia Hastings-James, Co-founder of Cookson James Loyalty Inc & BestLifeRewarded.com, will be examining how incentives can drive health behavior change.

Mr Thompson has over 25 years’ experience in various positions within academic medicine and academic health centres. He says that over the past decade there has been growing attention paid to the development of strategies to improve the health status of individuals and communities.

“This arises from a growing number of reports that highlight metrics which indicate health status and healthcare delivery are not achieving the outcomes desired in a cost-effective manner,” he explains. “A number of approaches have been developed with the emphasis of placing the patient at the core, to improve quality and outcomes. These include the development of patient and family centred care, patient centered medical homes, guided care and the Aliki Initiative, which has been established to educate healthcare professionals in patient centred care delivery.”

Mr Thompson says that an early review of these initiatives highlights the need for improved patient care infrastructure, care provider training, patient education and informatics support.

“While there is little dispute that this is the direction that must be taken, it is increasingly clear that thoughtful analysis and preparation are required to achieve the desired results,” he says.

Cynthia Hastings-James is another expert in her field, enjoying over 15 years of innovation in health promotion, medical education and marketing, with a particular focus on digital solutions. Following on from many successes in the digital field, Ms Hastings-James co-founded Cookson James Loyalty Inc and launched the BestLifeRewarded health incentive platform, which has been credited with changing the face of Canadian healthcare by producing a personalised focus on the end health consumer.

As such, Ms Hastings-James looks forward to sharing her knowledge on the use of incentives with patient-centred approaches to improve intrinsic motivation and overall wellness with the 20/20 Healthcare Conference audience. In addition, Ms Hastings-James will also be speaking as a panellist during the workplace wellness breakout session.

Breakout sessions are an exciting new addition to this year’s conference and will fall into three sessions taking place throughout the three-day event, with a focus on oncology and paediatric care as well as workplace wellness.

The Minister for Health, Environment, Youth, Sports & Culture, Mark Scotland, is delighted that these international speakers are able to contribute to this year’s event.

“We are extremely grateful to all of the experts, both local and international, who have kindly agreed to share their expertise with us at our national healthcare conference,” he says. “Both Ms Hastings-James and Mr Thompson are renowned experts in their field and will provide us with a tremendous amount of knowledge that we can digest and use in the planning of our healthcare policies, moving forward.”

The conference is free and open to the public and everybody who is interested in healthcare in the Cayman Islands is encouraged to attend and enjoy the exciting topics and lively discussion that will be presented.  For more information or to register visit www.healthcareconference.ky