Wisconsin Medical Journal 2006 • Volume 105, No. 3 41 WISCONSIN MEDICAL JOURNAL Partnering with Citizens to Reform Wisconsin Health Care: A Report of Citizen Congress II Norman Jensen, MD, MS; Anthony Suchman, MD, MA; Richard Dart, MD Doctor Jensen practices general internal medicine and teaches clinical medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a teacher-facilitator certified by the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare. Doctor Suchman practices and teaches clinical internal medicine at the University of Rochester, NY and consults nationally on relationship-centered organizations. He is a certified teacher-facilitator and board chair of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare. Doctor Dart practices and teaches Nephrology at the Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wis. He is chair of the Wisconsin Medical Society Professionalism Task Force and past-chair of the Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs. Please address correspondence to: Norman Jensen, MD, MS, Professor, General Internal Medicine, 2828 Marshall Ct, #100, Madison, WI 53705-2276; phone 608.263.8582; fax 608.265.8120; e-mail Nmj@medicine.wisc.edu. ABSTRACT Introduction: Commissioned by the Wisconsin Medical Society in 2003, the Wisconsin Citizen Congress project aims to get at least 5000 physicians and 100,000 citizens in a partnership for health and health care improvement in Wisconsin. The power of activated citizens and a citizen-physician partnership is one of few hopeful an- swers to current policy failures in health care. Citizen Congress II aimed to validate and extend the results of Citizen Congress I. Methods: Citizens and physicians were recruited lo- cally, aiming for an optimally-sized group that rea- sonably represented the diverse people and regions of Wisconsin. A weekend of dialogue with expert facili- tators used state-of-the-art methods and sought com- mon goals and a plan of action for health care policy improvement in Wisconsin. Results: Fifteen hours of dialogue validated the results of Citizen Congress I by producing trusting and high- energy dialogue and very similar characteristics of ideal health and health care. As progress from Congress I, advocacy opportunities for local and state health policy improvement were explored and written plans produced. There was strong support for continuing Congress work, aiming toward a strong and focused advocacy group. Conclusion: Citizen-physician dialogue and partnership is a hopeful innovation in the area of health policy and community health improvement. Its power comes from a partnership of organized voters and organized medi- cine. It has the potential to promote change longed for by many. It is strongly consistent with the quality and access initiatives of the new Wisconsin Medical Society strategic plan. INTRODUCTION In a recent survey of Wisconsin physicians, 1 Wisconsin Medical Society (Society) members advised the Society to engage in effective action to improve health care and physician work environments; non-member physicians wished for a Society that focused on the “high moral ground” of patient-centered care, patient-physician re- lationships, and community health concerns. Similarly, the recent Institute of Medicine report, “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” 2 recommended progress on 6 aims, in- cluding patient-centered and equitable health care. And the 2006 Future of Medicine project by the Michigan State Medical Society concludes that physicians “will have to give up their comfort zone and learn how to have dialogue with their patients.” 3 The Society recognized the absence of citizen voices and physician-citizen partnerships from the dialogue on health care reform when it commissioned the Wisconsin Citizen Congress (CC). 4 The 108th US Congress also acknowledged a lack of citizen involvement when it created Public Law 108-173, which says, “In order to improve the health care system, the American public must engage in an informed national public debate to make choices about the services they want covered, what health care coverage they want, and how they are willing to pay for coverage.” 5 One of the Society’s stra- tegic initiatives for 2006-2008 is “to lead the practice of patient-centered medical care in Wisconsin.” 6 Patient- centered care must, of necessity, be designed by citizens in partnership with their doctors. Citizen-physician partnerships will be more effective than either group