July 17th, 2011 by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D. in Opinion
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Twenty percent of people who leave their doctors’ offices with a new prescription don’t fill it. Up to one-half of those who do fill their prescriptions don’t take the drugs as recommended. These individuals are considered non-compliant. But does that mean they are not engaged in their health care? Engagement and compliance are not synonyms.
I am compliant if I do what my doctor tells me to do.
I am engaged, on the other hand, when I actively participate in the process of solving my health problems. This new prescription is an element in that process. If I am engaged in my care, I might want to learn about this medication. Such as: what it can and cannot do to ease my pain or slow the progress of my disease; what side effects it might produce and what I should do about them; how long it will take to work; when I should take it and how; how much it may cost; and what will happen if I don’t take it. I might want to consider the barriers to taking it and weigh the risks and benefits of alternatives. Could I instead make changes in my physical activity level or diet, try a dietary supplement or watchfully wait to see if the symptoms subside?
If my clinician has done more than just hand me the prescription – if she has, for example, raised these questions and discussed these concerns with me, I probably won’t have a prescription in my hand if I don’t intend to fill it.
But I can be engaged in my health care even if I don’t have that conversation with my provider. I can Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
July 7th, 2011 by admin in Research
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Nearly forty years ago, President Richard Nixon famously declared a “War on Cancer” by signing the National Cancer Act of 1971. Like the Manhattan Project, the Apollo program that was then landing men on the Moon, and the ongoing (and eventually successful) World Health Organization-led initiative to eradicate smallpox from the face of the Earth, the “War on Cancer” was envisioned as a massive, all-out research and treatment effort. We would bomb cancer into submission with powerful regimens of chemotherapy, experts promised, or, failing that, we would invest in early detection of cancers so that they could be more easily cured at earlier stages.
It was in the spirit of the latter that the National Cancer Institute launched the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer (PLCO) Screening trial in 1992. This massive study, which eventually enrolled more than 150,000 men and women between age 55 and 74, was designed to test the widespread belief that screening and early detection of the most common cancers could improve morbidity and mortality in the long term. Not a few influential voices suggested that the many millions of dollars invested in running the trial might be better spent on programs to increase the use of these obviously-effective tests in clinical practice.
They were wrong. As of now, the PLCO study is 0-for-2. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
June 23rd, 2011 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Health Tips, Opinion
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[image: iStockphoto]
Ladies imagine planning your daily events based around the timing of you menstrual cycle.
Some women suffering from uterine fibroids have a menstrual flow so heavy that it can impede their life.
“Everything must be planned around their menstrual, and it can be very draining physically (from the anemia of blood loss), as well as, mentally from the resulting stress this creates,” says Dr. John Lipman, Director of Interventional Radiology & Center For Image-Guided Medicine, Emory-Adventist Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia. “This can imprison women such that their entire life is tied to the menstrual cycle. They may not work or even be able to leave the house for several days each month. Even if they can work, the frequent interruptions throughout the day often makes this time very unproductive,” he adds.
“Uterine fibroids are the most common non-cancerous tumors in women of childbearing age. Fibroids are made of muscle cells and other tissues that grow in and around the wall of the uterus, or womb. The cause of fibroids is unknown. Risk factors include being African-American or being overweight.”
According to The National Women’s Health Information Center – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, about 20 percent to 80 percent of women develop fibroids by the time they reach age 50.
Dr. Lipman writes: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
June 13th, 2011 by admin in Health Tips
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In today’s fast-paced world, waiting — whether it’s at the doctor’s office, in line at the grocery store or for an Internet connection — is rarely considered a good thing.
But when it comes to certain medical conditions, delaying treatment while regularly monitoring the progress of disease — a strategy doctors refer to as “watchful waiting,” active surveillance or expectant management — may benefit some patients more than a rush to pharmaceutical or surgical options.
Patients want to know what they’re waiting for, says urologic oncologist E. David Crawford, MD, chairman of the Prostate Conditions Education Council and associate director of the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The purpose is to watch in order to see whether a condition progresses. That way, patients and physicians know what kind of threat a disorder poses and they can make a better decision about how urgently treatment is needed. Some people might never need treatment, for instance with a slow-growing cancer. Other people can delay treatment for months or years.
Precancerous conditions may also be monitored with active surveillance. One example is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
May 29th, 2011 by DavedeBronkart in Research
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The Society for Participatory Medicine was well represented last week at the 14th ICSI/IHI Colloquium. (ICSI is the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, a small midwestern think tank that’s way too poorly known.) SPM members who presented:
- Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of Health Populi gave the keynote for Day 2
- Jessie Gruman, four time cancer patient and founding co-editor of our journal, gave an important breakout session, about which I’ll be writing soon. (Jessie is founder and president of the excellent Center For Advancing Health.)
- Brian Ahier presented on the status of health IT, as Meaningful Use rolls out. (“You can’t measure the improvements that you gotta measure, unless you have computers keeping track of it.”)
- I gave a half-day pre-conference workshop titled “Participatory Health: Reshaping Patient Care.” I’m told the workshop had 40-50% higher registration than usual: interest in participatory medicine is strong.
An unexpected bonus was that right outside the workshop door, a poster presentation addressed some questions people often ask about patient participation and online health records:
- Will patients with problems actually use a PHR (personal health record)? (Many observers say PHRs are a non-starter, a pointless exercise.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
