
From Selfcare to Meta-Selfcare in Chronic Conditions: The Evolution of Patient Expertise [PCC070] Har passerat
Onsdag 6 maj 2026 11:30 - 11:45 G4
Moderatorer: Cristin Lind, Jana BergholtzRapportör: Sara Riggare
Spår: Orals Patient & Public Involvement
As healthcare systems grapple with the increase in chronic conditions, attention is turning to how patients themselves develop the knowledge and skills needed to live well over time. Traditionally, clinical practice as well as research on selfcare have emphasized compliance with professional guidance and the performance of daily management tasks—taking medication, monitoring symptoms, adjusting diet or exercise. Yet many people living with long-term conditions go far beyond this. They experiment, evaluate outcomes, share insights, and iteratively refine their strategies. This higher-order capacity can be described as meta-selfcare: the reflective and systematic process through which patients do selfcare and learn from, optimize, and evolve it. Meta-selfcare reframes chronic illness management as a dynamic learning practice rather than a set of fixed routines. It encompasses processes such as self-observation, hypothesis testing, adaptation, and knowledge sharing, activities that parallel scientific reasoning on a personal scale. Understanding meta-selfcare invites a conceptual shift from viewing patients as followers of care plans to recognizing patients as experts in the making of and as contributors to collective knowledge. It bridges experiential learning, personal science, and participatory health, highlighting the epistemic value of lived experience. Moreover, it clarifies that patient expertise complements and strengthens, rather than replaces, professional care. This means offering insights that can improve safety, personalization, and sustainability of health systems. In our session, we will present an emerging framework to provide a lens for rethinking chronic care as co-evolution between patients and healthcare systems. In the framework, we will articulate the logic and mechanisms of meta-selfcare and invite patients and family caregivers, clinicians, policymakers, and researchers to join us in moving beyond “supporting selfcare” toward co-creating meta-selfcare. Together we can foster environments where patients can reflect, experiment, and share the knowledge that keeps them well!
Konferens
GCPCC
GCPCC Seminarietyp
Orals
GCPCC Kod
PCC070
Föreläsare
Jana Bergholtz Moderator
Patient Partner / Researcher
GPCC, University of Gothenburg
I'm a patient partner (living with cavernoma) with research background (PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences). At GPCC/University of Gothenburg, my research focus is on patient and public involvement (PPI), with interest in: 1) How to reduce tokenism in PPI?, 2) Representativeness, 3) Pre-conditions and support infrastructures for PPI. You can find me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jana-bergholtz-74298310b/
Sara Riggare Rapportör
Forskare
Uppsala universitet
Sara Riggare, Dawn Richards, Therese Scott Duncan