Having seen several talks from some patient advocates recently, I'm skeptical that's a good idea.

I think health services are some of the most misunderstood by the population above everything else.

Patients are the worst at their own health, and often deluded about their ability to manage it. Gwyneth Paltrow and homeopaths don’t rake in money because people make great decisions. When you “empower” patients past their competence you get Steve Jobs in the ground. If he had just been another schmuck, he’d probably still be alive.

Health services are in service of the patients, not on your commoner opinion of what health should be and how it should be imparted.

And being in service of the patient often requires not doing what the patient wants, because the patient is not a medical professional and doesn't know shit.

Most people taking homeopathic medicine want their symptoms to get better. It’s not as though they have some different definition of a “good health outcome,” they’re just mislead about the effects of the what they’re buying.

Placebos work. Sad but true.