Physicians, like teachers, know the most important learning happens at home. It's a lesson physicians hope to convey to their patients so they'll learn about their own conditions and risk factors, as well as monitor and make decisions to improve or maintain their health without the need for unnecessary visits to their physicians.
"I tell my Crohn's disease patients, 'You have a new diagnosis. You'll live with this for the rest of your life. Within the next two months, you should know more about how to manage this condition than I do,'" says Thomas Deas, Jr., MD, a gastroenterologist and CMO of Sandlot Solutions, a healthcare information technology company based in Fort Worth, Texas.
Dr. Deas says patients over the last 60 years have been conditioned to visit the physician when they are sick, get a prescription and do their best to follow the physician's advice once they get home. But, that process does little to help patients understand the seriousness of maintaining their health and the critical role they play in staying well.
When patients fail to conduct their own research to identify problems and explore treatments and lifestyle factors, they often arrive at the physician's office too late to remedy their illness easily or quickly.
"Some of the sickest patients are the least engaged," Dr. Deas says. "That's what has to change. Patients have to understand that they should be much more involved in their care. That covers the spectrum from staying healthy to doing what is needed to manage illness."
Here, Dr. Deas shares four strategies for physicians wanting to encourage their patients' engagement in driving health outcomes.
1. Conversation. In conversations with the patient, physicians must emphasize that the patient plays a vital role in maintaining health and quality of life. Physicians are trained to make medical decisions and provide care, but prevention is the best medicine.
Additionally, there are often many choices patients can make regarding their health. Dr. Deas says patients, based on a physician's advice, may choose surgery, medication or lifestyle changes to improve their health, but too often they make the wrong choice to do nothing on their own and watch their conditions worsen. "There should always be multiple choice options for patients," he says.
2. Commitment. The real health improvements Dr. Deas sees in his patients occur when they decide to become engaged and commit themselves to taking ownership of their health decisions.
"Patient engagement is really a state of mind. At this moment, there's a small minority who are engaged," he says. Nothing can force patients to take control of their health. "Physicians can only demonstrate for patients what's in their best interest," he adds.
3. Information. With widespread access to websites like WebMD and an arsenal of health-related mobile apps, patients are more able than ever to conveniently learn about their conditions and what they can do to control them, Dr. Deas says. Additionally, many health insurance and employer-sponsored programs have incentives for learning how to control chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes.
Unlike 20 years ago, patients today can easily access information to educate themselves on medical conditions, he says. "Patients need to believe that what they know about their disease will profoundly improve how well they do in the long run."
Most physicians' websites have a wealth of information on them, he says, and patients would be considerably better off if they'd accessed these online resources.
Medical software for mobile devices has proliferated, and research from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society suggests these tools can be helpful for patients, Dr. Deas says. Older patients often prefer printed information and face-to-face interaction, which physicians should employ to reach that target group.
4. Ongoing communication. Getting patients engaged is critical, but keeping them engaged is just as important in order to achieve the best outcomes.
If patients visit their physician after progressive symptoms for eight weeks, that can be five weeks too late for effective treatments, Dr. Deas says. Currently, software is in trial stages that would allow patients with conditions like inflammatory bowel disease or diabetes to track health indicators like weight, blood sugar and symptom frequency and severity and upload it instantly from a device such as their smartphone to a physician's database. Data trending can identify if a patient may require a visit to the physician's office before the patient would otherwise consider consulting his or her physician.
That and similar health information technology are still in research mode, but may roll out to be used regularly in care if it's found effective. These types of tools could be especially helpful because the uploaded data can be monitored by nurses or case managers, freeing up physician's time to provide other services. But Dr. Deas says even with their potential usefulness, HIT is only valuable if patients will use applications consistently to make health-related decisions.
Increasingly, physicians' organizations have encouraged patient support groups, in which patients share their challenges and successes, helping to relieve anxieties and renew commitment to healthy decision-making, Dr. Deas says. The interpersonal interactions may be more helpful for some patients with chronic illnesses to stay committed to healthier living, rather than a smartphone app or a printed leaflet on their condition.
"The communication styles we've developed are going well beyond sitting in the physician's office and telling them what we think," he says. "Sometimes the best patient engagement processes are low-tech rather than high-tech."
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"I tell my Crohn's disease patients, 'You have a new diagnosis. You'll live with this for the rest of your life. Within the next two months, you should know more about how to manage this condition than I do,'" says Thomas Deas, Jr., MD, a gastroenterologist and CMO of Sandlot Solutions, a healthcare information technology company based in Fort Worth, Texas.Dr. Deas says patients over the last 60 years have been conditioned to visit the physician when they are sick, get a prescription and do their best to follow the physician's advice once they get home. But, that process does little to help patients understand the seriousness of maintaining their health and the critical role they play in staying well.
When patients fail to conduct their own research to identify problems and explore treatments and lifestyle factors, they often arrive at the physician's office too late to remedy their illness easily or quickly.
"Some of the sickest patients are the least engaged," Dr. Deas says. "That's what has to change. Patients have to understand that they should be much more involved in their care. That covers the spectrum from staying healthy to doing what is needed to manage illness."
Here, Dr. Deas shares four strategies for physicians wanting to encourage their patients' engagement in driving health outcomes.
1. Conversation. In conversations with the patient, physicians must emphasize that the patient plays a vital role in maintaining health and quality of life. Physicians are trained to make medical decisions and provide care, but prevention is the best medicine.
Additionally, there are often many choices patients can make regarding their health. Dr. Deas says patients, based on a physician's advice, may choose surgery, medication or lifestyle changes to improve their health, but too often they make the wrong choice to do nothing on their own and watch their conditions worsen. "There should always be multiple choice options for patients," he says.
2. Commitment. The real health improvements Dr. Deas sees in his patients occur when they decide to become engaged and commit themselves to taking ownership of their health decisions.
"Patient engagement is really a state of mind. At this moment, there's a small minority who are engaged," he says. Nothing can force patients to take control of their health. "Physicians can only demonstrate for patients what's in their best interest," he adds.
3. Information. With widespread access to websites like WebMD and an arsenal of health-related mobile apps, patients are more able than ever to conveniently learn about their conditions and what they can do to control them, Dr. Deas says. Additionally, many health insurance and employer-sponsored programs have incentives for learning how to control chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes.
Unlike 20 years ago, patients today can easily access information to educate themselves on medical conditions, he says. "Patients need to believe that what they know about their disease will profoundly improve how well they do in the long run."
Most physicians' websites have a wealth of information on them, he says, and patients would be considerably better off if they'd accessed these online resources.
Medical software for mobile devices has proliferated, and research from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society suggests these tools can be helpful for patients, Dr. Deas says. Older patients often prefer printed information and face-to-face interaction, which physicians should employ to reach that target group.
4. Ongoing communication. Getting patients engaged is critical, but keeping them engaged is just as important in order to achieve the best outcomes.
If patients visit their physician after progressive symptoms for eight weeks, that can be five weeks too late for effective treatments, Dr. Deas says. Currently, software is in trial stages that would allow patients with conditions like inflammatory bowel disease or diabetes to track health indicators like weight, blood sugar and symptom frequency and severity and upload it instantly from a device such as their smartphone to a physician's database. Data trending can identify if a patient may require a visit to the physician's office before the patient would otherwise consider consulting his or her physician.
That and similar health information technology are still in research mode, but may roll out to be used regularly in care if it's found effective. These types of tools could be especially helpful because the uploaded data can be monitored by nurses or case managers, freeing up physician's time to provide other services. But Dr. Deas says even with their potential usefulness, HIT is only valuable if patients will use applications consistently to make health-related decisions.
Increasingly, physicians' organizations have encouraged patient support groups, in which patients share their challenges and successes, helping to relieve anxieties and renew commitment to healthy decision-making, Dr. Deas says. The interpersonal interactions may be more helpful for some patients with chronic illnesses to stay committed to healthier living, rather than a smartphone app or a printed leaflet on their condition.
"The communication styles we've developed are going well beyond sitting in the physician's office and telling them what we think," he says. "Sometimes the best patient engagement processes are low-tech rather than high-tech."
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