In a recent Wall Street Journal article, veteran health journalist, Laura Landro, covers how people are better equipped than ever to take control of their health care and make informed decisions. She writes:
“For years, patients have been hearing the same message from the health-care industry: Get involved. They’re told they need to do more to monitor their chronic conditions. They are directed to be more active in deciding what treatments to have, or whether to treat a condition at all… Now researchers and health-care providers say they’re at last figuring out how to untie this doctor-knows-best knot and get patients to take charge of their own health. They’re designing decision aids, for instance, that walk patients through different options, translating complicated medical jargon and statistics about risk into simple language and visual aids. They’re offering patients full access to their own medical records, including their doctor’s notes about them. And they’re training doctors to help guide patients to make informed choices.” Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal here.
One of our foundation grantees is featured in the article — OpenNotes. With OpenNotes the goal is to give patients access to notes written by their doctors, nurses or other clinicians on any visit. “Research shows that access helps patients understand the importance of playing an active role in their own care,” says OpenNotes co-founder Tom Delbanco.
In addition to having access to medical notes, decision aids are playing an important role in patients having more control over their care. The foundation has supported work related to patient decision aids, mostly recently through a grant to the National Quality Forum, who released a set of national standards for certification of such tools. “Both consumers and physicians urgently need healthcare resources they can trust that meet a reasonable threshold for quality,” said Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, NQF’s chief scientific officer. “National standards to evaluate decision aids are critical to ensuring that these resources offer accurate information to patients so they can evaluate healthcare choices that reflect their goals, values, and preferences.” Read more here.
Message sent
Thank you for sharing.