Many health care policy decisions are made far from the exam room, without meaningful input from the patients and clinicians who experience the system firsthand. As a result, policies often miss real-world challenges and fail to reflect how care is actually delivered.

When the expertise and experience of patients and health care professionals are excluded, even well-intentioned policies can create barriers to care, limit access to treatment options, and overlook opportunities to improve outcomes. Lasting, effective health policy depends on placing lived experience and clinical insight at the center of decision-making.