I read a recent blog post by Dr. Ted Portnay, a practicing physician involved in Cardiology, where he writes about some of the problems he faces with effective patient education…
Patient Education – We Still Have Not Found What Works for Cardiac Patients
I spend a great deal of time with every patient focusing on education of their specific heart condition. I discuss their medications and their indications. I discuss proven primary and secondary measures.
I don’t think Dr. Portnay is alone with his situation. Consider the following:
- Today’s patients are exposed to an overwhelming amount of information on TV and radio. One can find hundreds of hours of content devoted to various health related topics from watching commercials, healthcare news and talk shows that deal with healthcare topics. Sometimes the information is conflicting.
- The Internet is an even bigger source of information (some good, some not so good). Even if the patient is elderly and does not use the Internet it is likely that their adult children are spending significant hours doing research and then talking to their parents about what they found.
- Not all doctors can break down the medical jargon and issues into easy-to-understand topics that non-medical folks can absorb and easily understand. I know from personal experience with my Mother, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, that some doctors are very good at relating complex medical issues and some are not. Studies show that 50-60% of patients do not understand the information their doctor or nurse provides about their diagnosis or treatment options.
- Personal responsibility is yet another issue and one that Dr. Portnay mentions in his blog post where the patient is told over and over to change certain habits or dire consequences will result. An example is the Diabetic that is non-compliant. Is their non-compliance because they are stupid or don’t think anything bad will happen to them if they keep doing what they are doing in spite of medical evidence to the contrary. Or is it because the health professional has not found the proper way to communicate with the patient?
In traditional paternalistic medicine, our doctors were our only source for information and, it seems to me, the discussions we had about healthcare issues weren’t quite so complex. But the landscape of the world has changed and healthcare is more participatory with the patient or caregiver doing much of their own research so healthcare professionals must figure out how to communicate with the multiple forms of information their patients are exposed to and make sure their (the doctor’s) message is being understood.
I believe the answer is not to find the one best way to educate all patients, but to find the best way to educate each individual patient. This is more work but the results should be better. How do we know what methods to use? The answer is use everything at our disposal. The new paradigm for healthcare is to combine education and social media and go where the people are. What this means is that physicians and hospitals need a comprehensive approach to patient education that includes one-on-one conversations, paper handouts and video on demand education within the hospital and office to address needs when the patient is present; plus a downstream, interactive program that is designed to provide education and information in blogs, on Facebook and Twitter, newsletters and even video that the patient can consume from their home or office.
By providing healthcare education and information in this manner today’s healthcare professional enables the patient to self-educate by consuming information in a manner they find most comfortable. And because the information comes directly from the doctor or hospital it should resonate more with the patient because they (doctor and hospital) have become the “trusted source”. It’s probably not possible to get 100% compliance from 100% of the patients but the greater the number of vehicles used to provide education and information should improve results over time.
