Being able to contribute patient-generated health data to one’s own personal health history has been the holy grail for many engaged patients. Knowing that ongoing data can support healthy habits and treatment of many conditions inspires many patients and family caregivers to keep records manually or, increasingly, with the aid of user-friendly devices. It may […]
The Maine Developmental Disabilities Council recently partnered with the Maine Primary Care Association (MePCA) to improve care for adults with intellectual or developmental disability (IDD). The Council had observed that many people with IDD seem to avoid going to primary care physicians when they needed care. Quoted in a case study by the Agency for […]
Following last week’s post about a specific challenge posed by telehealth —screening patients for domestic abuse and violence — this week, we focus on the quality of telehealth in general. Telehealth and other forms of virtual care have proven successful at expanding access and engaging many but not all patients. As these new models become […]
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently acknowledged Health Literacy Month with a blog post and reminder that the agency offers funding to researchers “to develop new evidence on how best to integrate organizational health literacy strategies into primary and specialty care, as well as how to spread health literacy strategies across ambulatory settings.” […]
The new year often inspires top-10 lists of past accomplishments or goals for the coming year. Looking back at published literature on the topic of patient engagement in 2018, I see too many to review comprehensively and too much variation to allow a few – or ten – to pop up as the “best.” It’s […]
Communication, communication, communication. And communication. That’s the core of the four steps hospitals and health systems can take to improve patient engagement, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). “Many of the errors we see in health care stem from communication problems,” said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, […]