November 10th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
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In my recent post on KevinMD, “Deeply Connect and Engage Your Patients With Empathy,” I write about how empathy is essential to help empower our patients: “It is with empathy that we can engage and empower our patients.”
Doctors and nurses are leaders in health care.
Being a great leader means having a clear vision, mission or goal. It means being committed, and knowing how to listen and communicate, but it involves much more. It’s about having heart, empathy, and an uplifting spirit.
I value and respect a well written post by Thomas Goetz, author of The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine recently published on KevinMD, “How can doctors successfully engage their patients?” Goetz writes about “Five things they should seek to give every patient, strategies to tap the most underutilized resource in medicine, their patient,” however I feel the most critical ingredient is missing, empathy.
Empathy
It is with empathy that we can engage and empower our patients. With empathy and heart we can help our patients feel good, valued and respected. Empathy allows us to engage and empower our patients to take charge of their health and well-being. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
November 3rd, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
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Guest post by Stephen C. Schimpff, M.D.
We are often told that the reason for the high cost of medical care is all of our new technologies and drugs. There is an element of truth in that but when used correctly, new technologies save lives and improve the quality of patient care and often improve safety. But technologies used inappropriately increase costs while not improving quality and may adversely impact safety.
A patient example
An older woman had been coming to the same primary care physician (PCP) as her daughter for over twenty years. She lived in another city about 30 miles distant but she preferred to visit the doctor with her daughter. She also occasionally saw a doctor near her home if she had an immediate problem.
On nearly every visit she said that she felt “tired.” Repeated history and exam over twenty years revealed no cause nor did logical tests such as those for anemia or hypothyroidism. She then developed syncopal episodes — times when she would black out and fall to the floor, once bruising her head when she fell against the stove, and then waking up in a few minutes. Evaluation by the PCP showed that she had intermittent episodes of bradycardia, or very slow heart rate, resulting in the drop attacks. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
October 26th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Interviews, News, Video
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Microsoft’s Dr. Bill Crounse Talks with Todd Park, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Health Tech Today
There’s a plethora of health information for consumers today. We are surrounded by smart meaningful material, but somehow it is easy to get lost in the maze of information. We get stuck navigating through it and we find it hard to obtain information that is right for us.
Even the most savvy health consumer may find it difficult to find information out about healthcare reform, insurance plans and the Affordable Care Act. But Dr. Bill Crounse, host of Health Tech Today talks with Todd Park, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about Healthcare.gov — a government website that makes it simple to find information on prevention, consumer rights, health insurance plans, and tools to assess the quality of care you’re getting.
Dr. Crounse calls Todd Park the “tech guru” behind the government website, charged with improving the nation’s health through the innovative use of technology and data. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
October 19th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
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Guest post submitted by MD Anderson Cancer Center
Most of us can’t keep up with all the new ways to avoid cancer. Thanks to the Internet, we now have an unlimited supply of cancer knowledge at our fingertips. But, how can we filter out the good, the bad and the questionable?
Below are steps to help you tease out the facts when reading that next big news story on preventing cancer.
Says who?
Don’t just take the writer’s word for it. Dig a little deeper to find out the source behind the hype. The American Cancer Society says you should ask yourself these questions when reading an article:
- Was this a press release from a company announcing a new breakthrough in cancer prevention?
- Was it a report from a clinical study that was given at a scientific conference?
- Was it a report from a study that was published in a respected medical journal?
- Where was the study done? What do you know about the research centers that conducted and sponsored the study?
Knowing the answers to these questions can help you decide on where you need to go to seek more details about the study findings. Visit the source of the information to learn more about how this new substance or method was tested. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
September 27th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News
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Turning to friends for online information is the hot topic within the Web world, and in Monday’s New York Times Technology and Business section, Jenna Wortham writes about how “Search Takes a Social Turn.”
Online sites are taking notice of what people like. Web companies are trying to make searching online for information more useful by tapping into the inner thoughts of what people like:
After a decade when search engines ruled supreme — tapping billions of Web pages to answer every conceivable query — many people now prefer getting their online information the old-fashioned way: by yakking across the fence.
Turning to friends is the new rage in the Web world, extending far beyond established social networking sites and setting off a rush among Web companies looking for ways to help people capitalize on the wisdom of their social circles — and to make some money in the process.
Listening and communicating
Listening and communicating with our friends can prove to be invaluable at times, and often they are our springboards for sharing our latest woes or trumpeting our successes. Whatever the case, friends are ruling the social networking world and frankly their opinion matters. Friends can be invaluable, and the geniuses behind new technology companies are taking notice and creating online sites focused on what friends are sharing with friends. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
