What’s A PAM Score?

PAM^TM is the Patient Activation Measure which was developed by Dr. Hibbard, Dr. Bill Mahoney, and colleagues. It helps you gauge how much people feel in charge of their healthcare. To find out more, you can go to InsigniaHealth’s website.

Given the focus on health engagement across the industry these days, I think this is an important tool to consider. It’s been used broadly and has been validated in a lot of published studies. The questions lead people to be assigned to one of four different activation levels.

You can collect and use the PAM score for segmentation, developing customized messaging, measuring program success, and/or identifying at risk populations.

A few other interesting points from one of their FAQ documents were:

• Patients who are more activated are more likely to adopt positive behaviors regardless of plan design.
  
• People with higher activation levels are more likely to choose consumer directed plans.
  
• People with low activation often feel overwhelmed with the task of taking care of themselves.
  
• You increase the level of success in by breaking down change into smaller steps where the consumer has a greater likelihood of success.