Physician Thursday – Patient Empowerment
Article by NaviNet Inc
It’s a tough world to be a patient in today. With family premiums on the rise, looming doctor shortages (especially in primary care), and no easy way to access personal medical records, seeking medical services can be more stressful than healing. Despite these challenges, several studies suggest that most individuals are far from giving up. After all, with education comes empowerment. Are you seeing your patients taking a more active role in their care management? Here are some of the exciting movements we’ve noticed in the space. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can bet it’s coming shortly.
· Boston-based PatientsLikeMe recently opened its (virtual) doors to all patients. Originally a community for individuals suffering from ALS to share their experiences, creating a vast database of patient-entered data, PatientsLikeMe is now encouraging people with any condition to join the discussion. This platform allows patients to learn and seek support from others with similar medical situations about potential treatments. The site hosts over 101,830 patients coping with over 500 conditions. And as you might guess–they’re still growing.
· An article from The Health Care Blog suggested future patients may begin rejecting CT scans as more reports indicate the levels of radiation emitted are cancer-causing.
· As we said before, knowledge is power. Especially when it comes to accessing information about your healthcare provider online. Soon, patients will have this ability through Physicians Compare, a CMS initiative. In 2013, CMS will add physicians’ quality performance data, based on the prior reporting year. But physicians aren’t crazy about it, especially since they are reporting biographical data errors on the site.
· According to Pew Research, patient empowerment is growing. Their recent report found that 80% of Americans research diseases, procedures, doctors, hospitals, drugs, test results and insurance on the Internet.
· In a survey of 1,111 people conducted by Makovsky & Company and Kelton Research focused on their online health news sources; 48% of respondents said they use WebMD. What are patients searching on WebMD? The Pew Survey tells us the top five conditions searched for on WebMD are shingles, gallbladder, gout, hemorrhoids and lupus.
· Research Corp.’s Ticker survey learned 20% of patients use social media as a source of health information online.
· But if you think your patients aren’t engaged enough, the Institute for Technology Transformation would like to share this report of “Ten things you need to know about engaging patients.”
As you can see, through social channels, internet health resources and mobile health apps, there are plenty of opportunities for patients to take initiative in their care plan. Let us know which tools and trends you find most promising.
About the Author
NaviNet is America’s largest real-time healthcare communications network.
