Honey bees know a thing or two about healthcare..

I was reading?a?story?that I wanted to share,?because it made me realize what is missing in most discussions about digital health..

Here goes:

“My dad has bees. Today I went to his house and he showed me all of the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn't survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.

I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.

Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey?collection, there were bees flying all over outside.

We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all of their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.

When it was time for me to leave we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.

Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.

We could all learn a thing or two from these bees ?????????

Interesting story, isn’t it??Let’s think?about?it?for a moment?and?how this relates to?patient-centric?healthcare.

Too much is spoken, written and thought about the?doctor?and the patient but like the bees in this story a lot of health related matters are dealt with by family and friends. Moral and physical support by peers?is completely neglected in all (but a few) of the documents that deal with?digital care!

Care is so much?more?than a doctor examining a patient,?making assessments.

As social "animals" we need interaction. We need to communicate, elaborate and discuss our feelings, hopes and despairs and observations. We talk about the digital inclusion and mean that we will need to find a way to integrate wearables and other gizmos into our health?environment. I want to make a case to include?you/me, the?everyday?Joe as an active participant, having influence on your health.?Tell me who better to monitor changes in behaviour etc...??

Just looking?at what is happening in Belgium, we are talking about BHR, EPD, Algemeen Medisch Dossier, ... but we never speak about the us surrounding humans, the everyday people who know us best.

Like the other inconsistency, de gele brooddoos, a yellow lunchbox that resides in over 100.000 elderly people's fridge containing vital data that MIGHT not reside in any of the aforementioned?data stores...?I?even believed for a moment?that?was a great addition till one elderly woman told me how the lunchbox was in the fridge when her?husband?got in?medical?trouble 10 km from home and the vital info wasn't with him, luckily, she was?there...

The story of the bees?made me?think about this again as the selfless help provided by people is the biggest omission in our digital care plans. Even though we call?digital health?patient-centric?what we all seem to?forget?is a key “component”, perhaps even?the most important part, humans.

?I?realize that that is the most difficult part to digitize?as flesh and blood living beings but they are the missing link! ?? ?? ??