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Dear Lucy: I’d always assumed that a “patient advocate” was a person. But evidently, at MIT, the patient advocate is anonymous. Or perhaps a committee. Or, according to Lucy, the patient advocate is a phone number and an email.

I certainly have no faith in a patient advocate without a name. How can the anonymous (or a committee) advocate for anything?

Wait! I get it—the patient advocate is a software program! From your website: “The patient advocate on our staff will work to resolve your concerns. MIT Medical’s patient advocate program [emphasis added] is designed to help patients resolve any issues that emerge in their interactions with MIT Medical.”

Cool! What language was used to code MIT Medical’s patient advocate program?—Another Cog in the Medical Machine

Dear Cog: Lucy must confess to reading your letter with some alarm, followed by a touch of paranoia. Could it be true? After all, the Institute was calling on all departments to make budget cuts. So perhaps MIT Medical had replaced its patient advocate with a computer program. And if they could do that, might Lucy be next? It was almost too horrible to contemplate.

Steeling herself for bad news (and picturing R2-D2 wearing Lucy’s trademark hat), Lucy paid a visit to Ruth Fishbein, MIT Medical’s director of performance improvement and risk management. Much to Lucy’s relief, Fishbein assured her that MIT Medical’s patient advocate position is always staffed by actual humans. “On our website, we refer to the ‘patient advocate program’ in the same way we refer to the ‘Allergy Service’ or the ‘Eye Service,’” she explains. “When you make an appointment with the Eye Service, you’ll see a clinician—a human one—for your eye exam. In the same way, if you were to contact the patient advocate today, you’d reach the human who currently holds that position, social worker Maggie Dwyer.” (The title of the position will probably be changing to “patient relations coordinator” before too long, Fishbein added, which will bring MIT Medical in line with the way most other health care organizations are now referring to the patient advocate role.)

The position is not a lifetime appointment, Fishbein noted, so when someone new assumes the patient advocate role at some point, the phone number and email address will remain unchanged, just as the contact information for each clinical area remains the same, even when longtime care providers retire or new providers arrive.

Though still somewhat concerned about her own potential to be replaced by a machine, Lucy hopes this answers your question and reassures you that MIT Medical’s patient advocacy role is, and will continue to be, filled by a real, live human being. —Lucy

Information contained in Ask Lucy is intended solely for general educational purposes and is not intended as professional medical advice related to individual situations. Always obtain the advice of a qualified healthcare professional if you need medical diagnosis, advice, or treatment. Never disregard medical advice you have received, nor delay getting such advice, because of something you read in this column.