Saturday, July 28, 2012

Healthwise: Smart Decisions: Know Your Options



Smart Decisions About Surgery

See a list of Decision Points about surgeries. Decision Points are designed to guide you through key health decisions, combining medical information with your personal values to make a wise health decision.
Surgery tends to come with high costs and risks. When the choice to have surgery is not clear, good decisions are even more important.

Learn the facts

  • What is the name of the surgery? Get a description of the surgery.
  • Why does your doctor think you need the surgery?
  • Are there other treatments you could try first?
  • Is this surgery the common treatment for this problem? Are there other types of surgery?
Use this surgery information formClick to view external link (What is a PDFClick here to see more information. document?) to help you.

Consider the risks and benefits

  • How might surgery help you?
  • How many similar surgeries has this doctor performed? How many surgeries like this are done at this hospital or medical center?
  • What results would you have to get from the surgery for you to consider it a success? How likely are those results?
  • What can go wrong if you have surgery? How often does this happen?
  • How long would it take to recover from surgery? How much time off would you have to take? What kind of rehab would you need?
  • What happens in the short term if you don't have surgery? What might happen over the long run if you don't have it?
  • If you need surgery, where should you have it? How can you reduce the chance of an error?

Ask about costs

  • How much does the surgery cost? How can you find out?
  • Can it be done on an outpatient basis, and is that less expensive?

Talk to your doctor

  • How much does the problem really bother you? Are you willing to put up with the symptoms to avoid surgery?
  • What are your concerns about the surgery?
  • Do you want to have the surgery at this time?
  • Do you want a second opinion? Second opinions are helpful if you have any doubt that the surgery proposed is the best option for your problem. If you want a second opinion, ask your primary doctor or surgeon to recommend another specialist. Ask that your test results be sent to the second doctor. Consider getting an opinion from a different type of doctor who treats similar problems.
For more information, see the topic Surgery: What to Expect.
Last Revised: August 17, 2011

Friday, July 27, 2012

Invitation to Promote Your NGO: Health Literacy@HELP



Health Education Library for People (HELP) invites you to be a part of the health literacy campaign.  If you think your NGO is in anyway involved in creating awareness on health related matters or directly working towards improving health literacy then this forum is meant just for you.  Be a part of the 2 month long pre-conference activities.We would love to know more about your work in this direction.
For this purpose, HELP will be organizing talks by such reputed organizations like yours.  You may send your representative to give a short presentation on the kind of work your NGO does or is planning to do in future which will help in improving health literacy.
Your talk will be for an approximate duration of 1 hour.  We will video record the talk and put it up on your page on our website.  All our readers (around 12,000) will be intimated to attend your talk.  These pre-conference talks will be scheduled during the second half of Sep and October’12.  In November’12 we will hold an E-poster competition in which you may send in your entries.  We will send you separate guidelines on this.
A little more on our plans…..
Putting Patients First through Health Literacy  conference has been scheduled for Sunday, 2nd December’12 at Nehru Center at 10.30a.m. to 1.p.m.
The conference will be followed by a health literacy workshop in the afternoon. Helen Osborne, President, Health Literacy Consultant from US has been invited to conduct this workshop. There are only 10 seats reserved for NGOs.  Other seats will be filled in by participating doctors and people from the healthcare industry.


Healthwise Handbook - When Books Are Best


When Books Are Best
“Print-to-Web” self-care books provide 
new value in an e-health world.

Donald W. Kemper, MPH
Chairman and CEO,
Healthwise
Founding Chair,
IxCenter Board of Directors
With thanks to Tracey Willnerd 
for research and editorial assistance

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Healthwise - Millions of People Served; Millions of Dollars Saved

Help people with their common health problems and avoid unnecessary health costs with Healthwise®print guides. Millions of people use the Healthwise® Handbook, our brochures, and our workbooks to make better health decisions. And that has translated into major savings for organizations like yours.



Provide practical, reliable health information for the home

When people have urgent medical questions, many of them don’t want to spend time browsing the Internet for answers. Maybe it’s because they lack Internet skills or an Internet connection. Maybe they dread sorting through the sheer volume of health content out there. Maybe they just prefer to grab a book and start reading.
Now in its 18th edition, the Healthwise Handbook has practical, up-to-date, easy-to-understand information on common health problems, from pinkeye to sunburn. Another volume, Healthwise® for Life, is geared to the special health concerns of people age 50 and over.
We also offer brochures and workbooks for high-impact conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and more.
Colorfully illustrated, written in plain language, and medically accurate, Healthwise print guides make practical health information accessible anytime day or night—no Internet connection required.

Deliver a custom benefit to target populations

Putting Healthwise print guides into people’s homes couldn’t be easier. Purchase them fully printed and ready to distribute. Or customize them with your own branding to direct people to your programs and services.

Our print guides are used by nearly 33 million people, including families, older adults, new parents, the underinsured, and the uninsured. Choose from:
  • Healthwise Handbook for families.
  • Healthwise for Life for people age 50 and better.
  • La salud en casa for Spanish speakers.
  • Brochures and workbooks that help people learn to manage their chronic conditions and other challenging health concerns.
However you use them, Healthwise print guides are a tangible reminder to people of your commitment to their health.

Unlock even more information by connecting online


Healthwise HandbookHealthwise for Life, and our other print guides all stand out from other home health care books. Providing quick answers to the most common questions, they’re great resources on their own.
But unlike other print materials, Healthwise guides don’t stop at the printed page. Our exclusive Go-to-Web codes link to even more content in the Healthwise®Knowledgebase. Our print guides give people instant access to a universe of valuable content and tools to help them treat ordinary ailments at home.
Increased self-care has been proven to save organizations millions of dollars—and it can lower your costs too.

Healthwise - Reinforce care with targeted print and email materials

Healthwise® Care Support Pages provide essential follow-up information for your care and disease management interventions. These engaging, easy-to-understand materials offer targeted information on hundreds of health issues ranging from wellness to prevention to chronic conditions.


Deliver effective health education in the right doses

Healthwise Care Support Pages are 1-page, 2-sided, full-color follow-up resources for people who need information after talking with a health coach.
Using plain, straightforward language and engaging illustrations, Care Support Pages help people understand the information the first time they read it. They’re action-oriented, answering “how” questions: How do I do a finger-stick test for diabetes? How do I manage my high blood pressure? How can I eat right and lose weight?
Member mailings cover hundreds of topics, on everything from asthma to osteoarthritis. But each one focuses on the care information that people need to know for their specific issue.

Connect and reinforce to improve health outcomes

Deliver the information your members need to manage their health. Prescribe Care Support Pages to your members through online delivery or with short, economical printouts. Provide these member mailings for:
  • Follow-up to triage to reinforce information covered during the call.
  • Care and disease management interventions to support self-management and prevent complications.
  • Each step in your care plans to improve people’s health and well-being.
To tie Care Support Pages to your other programs and initiatives, you can customize these mailings with your own branding and messages.

Developed with your needs in mind

Healthwise develops Care Support Pages in close collaboration with care and disease management organizations, to ensure that they provide just the right information to improve outcomes.
As part of our Care Management Solution, relevant Care Support Pages are connected to the content and tools used by health coaches while on the phone. It’s easy for health coaches to select print or electronic fulfillments, so delivering education is more efficient and cost-effective than ever before.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Healthwise - Success Story



Healthwise®  Success Story Prescription-Strength Information TM  for Every Health Decision 


Strange feeling leads to internet search Healthwise®  Knowledgebase helped him take his symptoms seriously and get to the hospital on time 

After a fun-filled weekend, you might not be too concerned if you woke up feeling strange on a Monday
morning. But for Simon Hymas, a 34-year old advertising executive in New York City, it was more than a case of the “Mondays.” He felt disoriented. His balance was off. And he felt numbness in his right hand. 
Despite feeling bad, he carried on with his morning routine. Thinking it might help him feel better, Simon took a shower. Things got worse. “I never felt like that before,” Simon told Healthwise. “So I decided to check out my symptoms on WebMD.” WebMD licenses the Healthwise Knowledgebase. 
He typed how he felt into the symptom checker. The results suggested a number of conditions associated with his symptoms, including a stroke. Believing a stroke was out of the question at his age, Simon wasn’t sure what to think. 
Simon has never worried too much about his health. But that morning he felt he had three choices: go to work, call his doctor to make an appointment, or go straight to the emergency room. The Internet information motivated him to go to the emergency room.  

With his wife at his side, he walked the four blocks to the hospital. During the admission process, Simon’s state of mind was disbelief. “I kept thinking that this won’t take long and I will go back to work,” he recalled.  
During the examination, once again Simon felt terribly dizzy and numb. The clinicians immediately set off the
neural alarm, and that’s when everyone, including Simon and his wife, realized he was having a stroke. Because Simon was at the hospital at the right time, the doctors were able to administer tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which can help dissolve blood clots and reduce the amount of damage caused by a stroke.  
After spending two days in the ICU, six weeks in the hospital, and six months in physical therapy, Simon is well on the road to recovery.  
Throughout the rest of his recovery, Simon can turn to Healthwise content on the Web to help him answer
questions, prepare for appointments, and understand test results. Just as the information motivated him to go to the emergency room, having the right information at every moment in his care will continue to help him with his recovery and allow him to keep making better health decisions about other health issues. 


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Healthwise - Reach people anytime anywhere


Healthwise® Mobile Modules build satisfaction and make people smarter health care consumers. With Healthwise, you get a single resource that offers consistent and connected health information and interactive tools for all your consumer touch points.


Answer their health questions. Promote your services.

Healthwise Mobile Modules deliver the interactive tools and consumer-friendly information people need wherever they are.
Enhance consumer engagement and build satisfaction with industry-leading health education solutions that are ready for strategic integration with your mobile solution.
Like all of the innovative products from Healthwise, extensive user satisfaction and user experience testing were used to create our mobile-optimized content and tools. The results show in the easy-to-use interfaces and intuitive, smooth functionality that consumers expect from their mobile devices.
Helping people find answers to their health questions and delivering access to your services right on their phone—creates a very smart end-to-end solution.

Ready, set ... go mobile

With Healthwise Mobile Modules you can quickly and easily take advantage of the current sky-is-the-limit mobile opportunities. Our out-of-the-box modules give you an immediate presence branded as yours. And if you’ve already gone mobile, Mobile Modules extend and enhance your users’ experience with your brand.
For example, the Healthwise Mobile Symptom Module is a great way to kick off your mobile presence. The Mobile Symptom Module guides people through an assessment of their symptoms so they can determine appropriate treatment for minor problems and know how soon to seek care for more serious symptoms. And from there, people can interact with your organization’s other apps such as making an appointment, calling your nurse line, or finding a provider.
For people on the go, the Healthwise Mobile Modules make deciding what to do about their health quick and convenient.
Your e-health and mobile programs will be more effective with tools and information that work together, consistently, and efficiently, all from a single source—Healthwise.

Put innovative, trusted health information in the palm of their hands

Only Healthwise has more than 35 years of innovation, content development, and user experience to help you take advantage of what the new mobile landscape has to offer.
Today, people need health education that doesn’t just sit there. It has to be available anytime anywhere. Healthwise mobile-optimized content and tools go where people go. From strategic integration with your mobile apps to consumer engagement, Healthwise Mobile Modules are ready for anything.
Mobile Modules differ dramatically from other applications in the market place because from the very start they were built to engage, support, and inform.
With Healthwise, you get a single resource that offers consistent and connected health information and interactive tools for all your consumer touch points.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Healthwise - Knowledgebase


Unlock the power of informed health care consumers

People need good information to make good decisions. The Healthwise® Knowledgebase is the only online health resource designed to help people make informed decisions. With consumer-friendly content and tools on thousands of topics, it’s a virtually unlimited guide to better health.

Educate for action

When people know more about their own health, they do more to care for themselves. And that has a positive impact on the quality and cost of health care.
With the help of our decision aids, people are able to communicate with their care providers and make sound health care decisions. They understand and ask for the care they need, and they avoid what they don’t need. And that means better outcomes and higher satisfaction.
People use the Healthwise Knowledgebase millions of times a year. It’s an online health encyclopedia—and so much more. In addition to offering thousands of
easy-to-understand explanations of medical conditions, symptoms, tests, and treatments, the Knowledgebase provides hundreds of interactive decision aids and tools that help people answer questions like:
  • What’s my risk for a heart attack or stroke?
  • Why is it bad for someone with diabetes to eat too much sugar?
  • Is back surgery right for me?
  • Should I give my child antibiotics?
The Healthwise Knowledgebase is written in plain language, uses compelling illustrations, and is easy to search. And check out the Healthwise® Video Library featuring animated and expert-hosted videos that transform the complex into easy-to-understand health information.
We also have a separate Healthwise® Knowledgebase for Canada and a Healthwise® Spanish Knowledgebase.

Deliver health content where and when it matters most

The Knowledgebase is a powerful, compelling resource that helps people learn—and take better care of their health. Here are some common ways to give people access to the Knowledgebase:
  • Add it to your PHR to automatically link people to the specific health content that’s relevant to their conditions, tests, procedures, and medicines.
  • Add it to your website or portal so people can search in their own home, on their own time.
  • Use it as the foundation for your online health programs and centers of excellence. Its comprehensive coverage gives you content and interactive tools to meet your custom needs.

Cut out the clutter with concise, consistent health content

People need easy access to evidence-based, consumer-friendly health content. That’s why so many organizations use the Healthwise Knowledgebase as their one-stop source for patient education. This time-tested online health resource with an interactive toolset gives people access to content that’s clear, consistent, and useful--no matter where or when they need it.
The Healthwise Knowledgebase always delivers content that people can put into action for better understanding and self-care. The bottom line: Informed health consumers make better health decisions (and that’s better for your bottom line).

Healthwise - Self-Management Programs


Serve a growing population without growing your staff

There’s a better way to educate and motivate more people who are trying to manage a chronic condition, stay healthy, or make complex decisions. Use our self-management programs to give people the information they want, when they want it. We’ll help you keep wellness up and costs down.

Extend your reach with personal health programs

Healthwise Learn To Earn engages people with action-oriented health courses. The courses include tracks that focus on people’s specific goals, motivations, needs, and behaviors. Individuals choose the tracks they need, and get information tailored to their personal preferences. These self-management programs provide a cost-effective way for you to support people who:
  • Are managing chronic or high-risk conditions, including asthma, CAD, diabetes, and depression.
  • Want to reach a healthy weight or stop smoking.
  • Aren’t being reached today, or who have health conditions not covered by your existing programs.

Deliver trusted health content in refreshing, engaging ways

Your health coaches can enroll people in self-management programs by prescribing the programs through your care management system. You can enroll people as part of your incentive program, through your HRA, or through other system triggers. And you can let people sign up on their own through your portal or PHR.
Once people are enrolled in Learn To Earn, they can choose the education track that they most identify with. Within each track, members progress through short, engaging lessons that teach key learning objectives by using:
  • Online articles with useful tips and features.
  • Personal stories about people with similar health issues.
  • Multimedia videos that explain skills for self-management.
  • Targeted information, decision aids, quizzes, and other tools.
Learn to Earn measures member progress and completion of the health courses and then reports back to your system. Learn To Earn can easily integrate into your incentives systems so you can reward member performance.

Grab their attention with the right information

Even though people might share a health condition or lifestyle issue, their experiences with the condition are different. Learn To Earn recognizes that people need information tailored to their specific circumstances.
Healthwise uses a five-step process based on mental models and personas to create each Learn To Earn course. We bring together findings from user interviews, apply behavior change science, and generate tailored content to make sure we’re engaging people with just the information they need.
When more people get tailored information that they need, they’re more likely to take steps to manage their health—and that makes it easier for you to keep your population healthy, your costs low, and your standing high with HEDIS and other quality measures.