Tag Archives: policy

Health Literacy – Not “Feeling” It?

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health-literacy

Bernadette Keefe MD

Health Literacy – It’s still not catching on.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines health literacy as

“the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions”.

 As a believer in improved general literacy for citizens, I have assumed that health literacy, achieved through quality health information, having been easily accessed and well understood, would be akin to the process of general literacy. But just as education involves more than the conveyance of information, it is similar for achieving health literacy.

Although considerable efforts have been made regarding the formulation and dissemination of health and self-care information, we are seeing little effect on health outcomes. All parameters of health and wellness in the U.S. remain stubbornly poor, including the high incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental health, and addiction. Healthcare systems and healthcare professionals continue to tout patient engagement strategies and the importance of health literacy, but as Michael Friedman states in his excellent piece on the topic:

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The Radiologist – Clinician Relationship

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 Fluoroscopy_procedure_1909Image: Thoracic Flouroscopy Using Handheld Screen ~ Circa 1909 via @Wikipedia

Bernadette Keefe MD

 

Classically, the radiologist was known as the doctor’s doctor, and many consultations were carried out in person. Radiology reading rooms of the past were vibrant hubs, where radiologists received in depth and nuanced patient histories from the clinicians, then reviewed /discussed the images and finally the two physicians would reach agreement about next treatment steps. Continue reading →

Population Health: Our lives, Our data

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Population Health Blog pic

By Bernadette Keefe MD

On July 16th 2015 I had the pleasure of being on a panel discussing Population Health Management with eloquent, smart colleagues: Dan Munro (@danmunro) Janice McCallum (@janicemccallum), Deryk Van Brunt (@HCI_Solutions) and Justin Lanning (@LanningHlthcare). It was a fascinating wide ranging discussion covering the definition of population health, the mechanisms and strategies of population health management (including the overriding importance of data collection/analysis and practicing medicine/providing healthcare in teams), the value of universal medical coverage (despite ACA still too many uncovered), issues around security and privacy of data and the lack of health information technology standards and EHR interoperability (need for a patient identifier), patient empowerment and access to records and relevant health data to enable better self care, issues regarding the social determinants of health and examples of strategy/success stories, incentives and tools for value based care and optimal outcomes, the challenges of behavioral/ lifestyle change, health literacy and patient engagement, the importance of context to better treat patients and obtain improved outcomes, the role of community in population health and the utterly unsustainable level of cost of healthcare in the U.S., among other topics.

 

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population health: that means us

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Population Health: ACA and ACOs

Population health has become the lynchpin of healthcare delivery in the United States, especially since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 2010. (This law was passed due to the unsustainable costs of US health care coupled with less than stellar population health outcomes in the US.) A key way the ACA proposes to reduce health care costs is through the formation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). These are networks of doctors, hospitals, and ancillary health care providers who form networks to coordinate patient care and share financial and medical responsibility for that care. Required by ACOs is coordination by primary care physician, care of Medicare patients, and answering to multiple measures of quality. Providers get paid more for keeping their patients (their local population) healthy and out of the hospital.

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