Patient Engagement: Overused Sound Bite or Transformative Opportunity? ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Patient Engagement: Overused Sound Bite or Transformative Opportunity?

From the 31 March 2015 post at The C Health Blog

Criteria for Stage 3 of meaningful use of EHRs were released recently and there is lots of controversy, as would have been predicted. One set of recommendations that is raising eyebrows is around patient engagement.

The recommendations include three measures of engagement, and providers would have to report on all three of them, but successfully meet thresholds on two.

1. Following on the Stage 2 measure of getting patients to view, download, and transmit their personal health data, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has proposed an increase from five to 25 percent.
2. The second measure requires that more than 35 percent of all patients seen by the provider or discharged from the hospital receive a secure message using the electronic health record’s (EHR) electronic messaging function or in response to a secure message sent by the patient (or the patient’s authorized representative).
3. The third measure calls for more than 15 percent of patients to contribute patient-generated health data or data from a non-clinical setting, to the EHR.

This is all a mouthful, and it’s striking and a bit misguided from two perspectives. First, this requires health care providers to present material to or interact with patients electronically in the name of patient engagement. But it is really mostly about shoveling uninspiring material at our patients that is redolent of highly technical jargon with minimal context, with the belief that it is somehow good for patients to be engaged in this way. The intent is admirable, but the execution flawed. In addition, it is not surprising that many providers have had challenges meeting the Stage 2 requirement that five percent of patients download their medical records. It seems akin to saying that this week’s book club selection is the text for advanced graduate study of quantum mechanics — and then wondering why no one shows up for the meeting.

Some define engagement in terms of how many times consumers or patients interact with informational websites or portals. Both insurers and providers do this. Once again, there is puzzlement over why consumers would choose to spend more time on sites such as BuzzFeed, Facebook and Yahoo, rather than intently study their health benefits or review their lab tests.

At Partners HealthCare Connected Health, our first generation interest in engagement came when we saw, reproducibly, that people who interact with connected health programs have consistently better health outcomes.

This brings up two salient points: The first is how finely we can measure engagement using connected health.

……

[Partial Reblog] The Power of Patient-Expert Books

(And no, I am not advertising these books, or endorsing the contents of these books, only pointing to a trend!)

From the 4 January 2013 Huffington Post article by Riva Greenberg

Today, more and more books are being written by patients — well-educated, informed patients who manage their illness successfully and have experience, practical knowledge and insights to share with other patients.

As the new year incites a rush to become a “new, better and healthier you,” we often do so learning from our peers. When it comes to illness-warranted behavior changes, as like seeks like, it’s often easier to make changes learned from fellow patients with whom you share the experience of a disease. Like support groups and mentor programs, this is fertile soil for positive behavior change. So, I applaud the rise of patient-authors.

Patient-authors also narrate the experience of illness. That is why I hope health care professionals (HCPs) are also reading books written by patients. A book like No-Sugar Added Poetry, for example, can give HCPs immediate access to some of the emotional landscape of living with diabetes.

There is, in my mind, no easier or quicker way to tap into the experience of illness — what patients grapple with, how they feel, and the practical things that must be managed every day — than by reading a patient-written book.

When clinicians do, I believe they will become more mindful and compassionate and the relationship with their patients more trusting. And that can lead to better outcomes for both….

Read the entire article here

 

Health Resources in Multiple Languages

Those of you who follow my blog notice that from time to time I highlight multilingual health information Web sites as Healthy Roads Media.

Recently (via a US govt listserv- PHPartners) I ‘ve come across a wonderful list of general health information resources in multiple languages. This resource list is a subset of the larger  Multi-Cultural Resources for Health Information. Multi-Cultural Resources includes links in the following areas

• Cultural Competency
• Dictionaries, Glossaries, and Online Translation Tools
• Health Literacy
• Health Resources in Multiple Languages
• Interpreting in Health Care
• Law, Policy, and Standards
• Limited English Proficiency
• Multicultural Research
• Organizations and Portals
• Refugee Health Portals
• Disclaimer

Oh, I haven’t forgotten. Here is the list of Health Resources in Multiple Languages.

 

• Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Documents in Other Languages 
  Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Consumer Health Information in Many Languages
  Multilingual online health resources, organized by specific
  languages, including glossaries
  National Network of Libraries of Medicine, National Library of Medicine
• EurasiaHealth Knowledge Network 
  Clearinghouse of free resources on Central & Eastern Europe and
  the New Independent States
  American International Health Alliance
  United States Agency for International Development
• Facts for Families 
  In English, Spanish, German, Malaysian, Polish, and Icelandic
  American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• Health Access Project
  Translated Hospital Instructions
• Health Information Translations 
  Information for limited English proficiency patients translated into various languages
  The Ohio State University Medical Center, Mount Carmel Health System
  OhioHealth
• Health on the Net Select 
  Searchable database of medical and health queries
  Available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese
• Health Translations Directory 
  From Australia. Contains links to online multi-lingual resources
  Department of Human Services
  State Government of Victoria, Australia
• Healthy Roads Media 
  Site contains free health education materials in a number of languages
  and a variety of formats
  Healthy Roads Media
• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada 
  Material available in English and French. French link found at bottom of page
  Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Multilingual Health and Safety Resource Guide
  Labor Occupational Health Program, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
  University of California at Berkeley
• Multilingual Health Information
  Stanford Health Library, Stanford University
• Free Publications for Women
  Easy-to-read pamphlets, available multiple languages
  Office of Women’s Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Patient Information Brochures for Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgery 
  Material available in English, French, Polish, Spanish, and Vietnamese
  The Society of Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
• Resources by Language
  Health topics in 50 languages
  NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service
  New South Wales, Australia
• Translated British Columbia Health Files
  Fact sheets translated into Chinese, French, Punjabi, Spanish, and Vietnamese
  Ministry of Health, British Columbia, Canada
• Urban Health Partners
  Spotlight on Arabic language health materials and Arab American health.
  Additional materials on Culturally Responsive Health Care
  Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University
• Vaccine Information in Other Languages
  Vaccine information in over 30 languages
  Immunization Action Coalition
• West Nile Virus Multilingual Fact Sheets
  Patient education materials about West Nile Virus in 22 languages
  Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
  Government of Ontario, Canada

Related articles

• 5 tips for engaging with multilingual audiences on social media (prdaily.com)
• More Resources On Different Cultures (larryferlazzo.edublogs.org)
• Web Resources for African Languages‏ (metaglossia.wordpress.com)
• “I Read It on the Internet, So It Must Be True”: The Importance of Media Literacy (healthed.typepad.com)
• Digital Health Literacy: Separating Fact From Fiction (healthed.typepad.com)
• Internet Health Information: Be a Savvy Consumer! (julia5150.com)
• More Consumers Get Health Info On Mobile Devices (informationweek.com)