This article profiles successful managers who listen to their customers. Dr. Michael Rich, Director of Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) at CMCH, listens to his patients by giving them video cameras and telling them to “show me your life with chronic illness.”

“’Medicine is not a religion; it’s a service industry,’ argues Rich. ‘Yet as doctors, we often block ourselves from getting information that we most need to serve our patients. We need to listen to patients within their framework. They’re the experts, they live with their illness every day. We can learn from them.

The toll of asthma continues to increase, despite important advances in diagnosis and treatment.”

Dr. Michael Rich, Director of Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA), at CMCH has “devoted himself to helping his patients chronicle their experience with asthma by giving them camcorders and asking them to make video diaries.

From analyzing the videotapes, Rich has seen reasons for noncompliance with disease management: “Asthma is not the number-one issue in the lives of a lot of my patients. They’’ve got other concerns.”