The Autonomous Patient

“The disability world is the most inclusive club on the planet. Because at any time, any one of us could become a member.” 

-Anonymous chronic pain syndrome patient 

Patients do not choose to be patients. They end up here by circumstances of life, from disease or trauma, or from a condition acquired from birth. Despite the haphazard nature of disease, these conditions often seem to define the human being. 

But human beings are so much more than just the diseases that ail them, a concept understood well through the medical ethics tenet of patient autonomy. 

“Autonomy is a fundamental human right” (Moran, 2024) and refers to the right patients have to make decisions about their own healthcare. Every individual has unique priorities and goals in life and will therefore make different decisions about their healthcare when faced with difficult decisions. 

Surprisingly, it is the mere ability to make decisions for oneself that can improve outcomes. Study after study has demonstrated that autonomy is one of the best mitigating factors for bad outcomes on all fronts. 

Indeed, the effects of autonomy can be startling. A well-established hospital practice is to provide patient-directed analgesia, or pain relief. Once an IV line has been established, the patient can choose when to deliver the pain relieving medication by the push of a button. While the maximal safe dose will of course be monitored by their care team, the decision of when and how often to administer the pain relief is the patient’s decision. Rather than rely on a provider to administer the medication, patients can administer their own medication when they feel they need it, resulting in more adequate pain relief (Pastino, 2023).

When patients feel a sense of an internal locus of control, that their actions can indeed positively impact their own health outcomes, they tend to actually exhibit better health outcomes. 

And the impacts of patient autonomy run much deeper than you would think at first glance. Patients who feel a sense of autonomy have an increased “self-regulation through increased attention and engagement… and that autonomous self-regulation is associated with fewer and weaker temptations during goal pursuit.” In other words, feeling like one has more control over one’s life enables that individual to actually have more control over their own lives, through improved emotional and self-regulation (Cosme, 2020). 

Increased levels of autonomy are not only good for patients, but for healthcare providers as well. Increased job autonomy is one of the best mitigating factors to prevent healthcare provider burnout (Linzer, 2025). Indeed, it seems to be a very human characteristic to wish to have control over the direction of one’s life. 

At ReviMo, we are striving to create a more autonomous world for patients and providers alike. 

Through independent transfer, the ReviMo Niko can bring autonomy to the lives of individuals for whom life has very much been lacking in this fundamental human right. The downstream effects of our device can help not only the immediate outcomes of being able to get out of bed independently, but also the important role of all the other things that come after it.

By being able to get out of bed independently, the world opens up, and so many other goals can start to be achieved. 

References: 

Cosme, Danielle, and Elliot T Berkman. “Autonomy Can Support Affect Regulation during Illness and in Health.” Journal of Health Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2020, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6933086/. 

Linzer, Mark, et al. “Burnout in Modern-Day Health Care: Where Are We, and How Can We Markedly Reduce It? A Meta-Narrative Review from the EUREKA* Project.” Health Care Management Review, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11902612/. 

Moran, Mark. “Exploring Autonomy in Healthcare: Ethical Principles and Practice.” AIHCP, 29 Aug. 2024, aihcp.net/2024/08/29/exploring-autonomy-in-healthcare-ethical-principles-and-practice/. 

Pastino, Alexander. “Patient-Controlled Analgesia.” StatPearls [Internet]., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 29 Jan. 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551610/.