Wrap your head around that idea. It’s one of the many insights I learned from reading Let Patients Help — and I’m freaking quoted in that chapter!
But that’s E-patient Dave, seeing things that nobody else sees and, in this case, making up words like “boogloo” (Bing + Google + Yahoo).
As he writes: 81% of U.S. adults use the internet and 72% of them have sought health information online in the past year (see: Pew Internet: Health). This is not a sign of the health information apocalypse, he and Danny Sands say, but a sign of a groundswell. What if, instead of dismissing people’s interest in doing some quick (or in-depth) research online, clinicians gave them some guidance? That’s their advice: “If patients don’t know how to do the Boogloo safely, don’t stop them from engaging — teach them how…The solution is not to restrict and constrain. Empower the people: enable, and train.”
If you’re interested in getting up to speed fast on patient engagement, Let Patients Help is your passport.
This is exactly what a group of us submitted in a proposal to PCORI in cycle II- find out how pts use BOOGLOO and how they share that information with their neurologists. The flip side is how do the neuros respond and use that information to guide their patients in informed decision making. The ultimately we want to develop tool(s) that facilitate the dialogue and information sharing between patients and doctors. And yes, we quoted PEW as well. Now I have to go find the book!
Hooray! As I tweeted to Dave, we encourage Pew Research data to go out dancing with anyone and everyone — no chaperones necessary. But we do like to hear about where the data pops up — thank you.
Laura, glad you like it – the book’s at the links in Susannah’s post.
I drove myself nuts repeatedly looking for Pew’s quotable facts, so I asked them to put together a “tip sheet,” which they did. Then I could never remember where it was, so I made a Bit.ly memorable URL for it: http://bit.ly/PewHealthTips … sweet!
True! Pew Internet rolled out other tip sheets after the first one, Health, and now the Social Networking and Mobile pages are among the most popular products across all of the Pew Research Center’s publications, week in, week out. We learned that people often want a primer or overview. By listening to our customers (like Dave) we can better serve everyone. There’s a lesson in there for health care.
> We learned that people often want a primer or overview.
Said differently, people often like concise. Call it immediate gratification, quick time-to-value, short attention, or whatever you want, it’s why I made the book short.
I just updated the post so the book cover image links to the Let Patients Help page.
Ι love the fact sheet! everything neatly in one place and if I need more details I can always dig deeper.. Of course, I quote often Pew in my presentations and posts, even though data are not European they show the trends…
Susannah,
I happened upon your “Love is the reason” quote about a year ago (below) and knew I was hooked. Thanks for all you do.
Scott
Seattle, WA
Featured Quote: “Love is the reason why people want to stay healthy. It’s why they want to stay well. It’s why people feel compelled to share, to give each other emotional support, to track observations of daily living, to track how a medication treats them as an individual so others can learn from it. Because of love. Because we want to help each other.” ~Susannah Fox j.mp/FoxOnLove
Thank you! I loved writing that speech because it was a way to honor my mentors — people like Tom Ferguson and Patti Brennan, but also all the people who have taken the time to share their stories with me.
It should be pointed that those wishing to watch your entire “Healthcare Online”speech can view it at the easy-to-remember url : j.mp/FoxOnLove