The Lundberg Institute Platform

All health care is local and personal. One patient, one physician; one moment, one decision. Doctors and patients together have enormous power. The strength of that power is derived from the trust that patients and physicians place in each other. The Lundberg Institute (TLI) endorses as core principles that medicine is a moral enterprise grounded in trust, with patients at the center of care, and that physicians work to better the health of their patients and the overall health of the public. TLI patients in turn accept their responsibilities to work with their physicians to make informed decisions about their health, to be adherent to treatment plans, and to take good care of themselves.
The Lundberg Institute provides a platform for aligning physician and patient interests and values and seeks improved outcomes. These values are Trust, Truth-telling, Teaching, and Transparency. TLI aspires to motivate patients and physicians to incorporate evidence-informed best practices, information technology, and effective communication into their health care decision-making. Patients need access to productive, competent physicians in multiple specialties close at hand, physicians who participate in smoothly functioning, effective, and efficient practices, whether in solo practice or in small or large groups. Patients are badly served if physicians become so discouraged by defensively fighting a dysfunctional “Health Care System” that they close their practices and leave a region under-served. TLI espouses that patients should expect to be treated following principles of patient centeredness. These include enhanced listening skills by physicians; effective oral and written communications; best use of information technology; shared decision-making, including transparency in the cost of diagnostic and treatment options; evidenced-informed medical care; and a credo that the needs of the patient come first.