(4) Great Expectations: Enhancing Confidence, Improving Health [1.00 hr CE Credit]

Presenter: David S. Sobel, MD, PhD

Objectives: Participants completing this presentation will be able to:

  1. Describe the role of psychosocial distress in driving the need and demand for medical care.

  2. Identify opportunities to use guided imagery to enhance confidence and positive expectancies in delivering care and improving health outcomes.

  3. Apply strategies for successfully implementing and sustaining mind/body interventions in complex health care organizations.

Description: All medical and surgical treatments can improve health by direct physical intervention and by influencing patient expectations, confidence and behavior. Words can be scalpels: they can heal or harm. Increasing evidence suggests a robust link between self-efficacy and health outcomes.

Guided imagery and related interventions can help shape positive expectancies and enhance a sense of confidence and control. Such techniques can also address the psychosocial distress that drives the need and demand for medical care.
Finally, we will explore some real world strategies for successfully implementing and sustaining mind/body interventions in complex health care systems.