Liz Burden has dreamed about becoming a physician since she was in high school. As a third-year student in the Doctor of Medicine program with the UBC Faculty of Medicine, she’s well on her way to making her dream a reality.

She appreciates the flexibility that medicine allows to combine research, education, and clinical endeavors and understands the value of bringing in the expertise of people with lived experience into the education of health professional students. Liz has demonstrated the importance of patient engagement through her own research, which earned her a UBC Health scholarship—the 2019 ImpactBC Scholarship in Health Care Research and Development.

Patient collaboration reminds us how priorities should be organized and that we as healthcare professionals should never lose sight of the person behind the job requirements. 

“Being a healthcare professional has an interesting job description because ‘work’ involves taking care of someone’s life,” says Liz. “Patient collaboration reminds us how priorities should be organized and that we as healthcare professionals should never lose sight of the person behind the job requirements.” 

Liz's research focused on the sources of stress and anxiety experienced by family and friends of patients undergoing surgical operations. This led to the development of PatientLink, a unique tool aimed at improving communication and reducing the stress experienced by patient supporters during the time period of a patient's surgery. 

“When a patient enters the operating room for a procedure, their family members and friends face increased stress and anxiety due to reduced communication with the medical team during the procedure,” explains Liz. “PatientLink allows patient supporters to stay informed as their loved one progresses through the perioperative process.”

I learned the importance of connectedness in patient care [and] including patient supporters in the care team.

PatientLink was developed in-house at UBC and is a web-based tool that allows patients to be followed by their supporters, both in hospital and remotely, throughout the day of surgery. Prior to the operation date, an individualized webpage is created for the patient’s surgery, and the link is emailed to the patient and their loved ones. On surgery day, the medical team logs in and provides real-time status updates on the webpage.

The project is being piloted at Vancouver General Hospital. Liz’s research team is recruiting patients undergoing major urological surgery, including nephrectomy and renal transplantation and creating individualized surgery webpages. The links are sent to patient supporters, and at the end of the perioperative process, they complete an online survey. After the pilot has been completed, the implementation phase will evaluate the viability of PatientLink and the feasibility for more widespread incorporation, such as broadening the use of PatientLink across disciplines and hospitals.

“Through PatientLink, I learned the importance of connectedness in patient care,” says Liz. “Despite evidence to show the importance of patient supporters in the recovery of their loved ones from surgical procedures, family and friends are often the forgotten ones in the perioperative period. Our preliminary work in this project established a need for improved communication between the healthcare team and patient supporters. Whether that be through PatientLink or another means, I learned the importance of including patient supporters in the care team.”

The ImpactBC Scholarships in Health Care Research and Development are awarded to current UBC students who have completed a research or development project focusing on patient/client involvement in healthcare decision-making or in health professional education. The 2020 ImpactBC scholarships are currently being adjudicated and will be announced in early 2021.

Posted December 7, 2020