Evan Heigert
The power and significance of a preventative approach to healthcare is built on patient education and backed by results. A study in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found just 45 minutes of patient education has the potential to improve outcomes for patients with chronic disease. Patient education helps healthcare providers adopt a more proactive approach to care and disease management. Screening for and treating potential health care risks before they exacerbate into acute conditions saves lives and money while also helping to alleviate long-term pressure on clinicians.
Let’s look at cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading cause of death globally, representing 32% of all deaths worldwide. While CVD presents an urgent need to prevent and there is a ripple effect on patient’s long-term healthcare outcomes and costs if ignored. For example, the first diagnosis of diabetes can often occur during the treatment for a heart attack, long after preventative measures could have been employed.
Preventive care cannot just consist of care, however. Patients must play their part by practicing self-care and adhering to care plans. Critical to this is ensuring the patient has the information and understanding of how and why they need to play a role. This is where patient education comes in. If those educational materials are relatable and personalized, it can increase engagement by highlighting factors within patients’ control. This also takes the approach of making the patient a partner in their care team. By emphasizing and empowering the patient within this role, it drives positive outcomes and alleviates pressure on care teams.
What is needed to create educational materials like this?
The design should align to four key principles that can enhance empathy, understanding, and trust:
- Deliver educational materials in a way that best supports the patient, their learning style, and their preferred medium. There are four pillars for effective patient education materials:
- Easy to understand content written at or below a fifth grade reading level as recommended by the Joint Commission report: Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals.
- Medical art and visual storytelling that is clear, approachable, and human-centered. Materials that reflect a broad range of patients and patient experiences – including races/ethnicities, ages, genders, sexual orientations, family structures, abilities, and socioeconomic statuses – have been shown to build trust among a greater cross-section of patients and increase the accuracy of the information presented.
- Voices that are empathetic and diverse, so the patient can hear themselves and their community. People don’t just want to see themselves in educational materials, they also want to hear representational voices as well.
Available through digital tools that are adaptable, accessible, interactive, and personalized with an intuitive user experience. Assume that this content will be consumed on mobile phones and devices and not computers. Patients should also be able to “drive” their experience to achieve their goals.
- Recognizing that social drivers, such as social circumstances, environment, and genetics create health disparities. Education that is effective isn’t one size; fits all but rather aware that patients are coming from diverse environments and backgrounds.
- Focus on holistic health: patient information should encourage positive behavioral change for things a patient CAN affect, such as nutrition, mental health, dealing with stress and anxiety, and exercise.
- Know patients may have anxiety: patient education can clarify complex topics in approachable ways, reducing anxiety and information overload.
When evaluating patient engagement and education it is important to realize empathetic communication is not just the right thing to do, but it also has very real and quantifiable outcomes that can tackle some of healthcare’s biggest challenges.
Patient education leads to better outcomes – greater satisfaction, improved comprehension, increased empowerment, and better clinical outcomes. For example, the Cleveland Clinic found when colonoscopy patients view the associated patient education, they are 50% less likely to need to repeat their colonoscopy. And that’s just one of many examples of a measurable impact proactive patient education can have.
It’s time to make empathetic, inclusive health education content the standard so patients, providers, and payers can navigate the health journey together and partner to achieve better outcomes.
Photo: Paul Bradbury, Getty Images
As a brand and creative leader, Evan has crafted award-winning experiences, campaigns and strategies for dynamic brands across a variety of industries. At Wolters Kluwer, he leads a talented team of design, animation and UX professionals in building content and experiences for Emmi, a patient engagement tool that’s making healthcare more personalized and empowering better health decisions.
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