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 form (What is a PDF 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.

• Smart Decisions About Medicines
• Smart Decisions About Other Health Issues

Last Revised: August 17, 2011

Author: Healthwise Staff

Medical Review: Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & Brian D. O'Brien, MD - Internal Medicine

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

http://www.healthwise.org/docs/DOCUMENT/8203.pdf

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 Handbook, Healthwise 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.

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Turn a few pages of the

Healthwise Handbook

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.

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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. 

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.

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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).

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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.

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Engage people with multimedia health programs

Healthwise virtual health coaches are Web-based multimedia programs that present information in a way that makes people feel like they’re having a conversation with a real coach. The self-management programs address high-value health topics including:

• Asthma, diabetes, and depression.
• Taking beta-blockers and low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks, and taking statins for high cholesterol.
• Stress, smoking, sleeping, and being active.
• Healthy weight, healthy eating, and positive thinking.

The virtual coach asks questions to understand what kind of help each person wants. Based on the person’s answers, the coach provides tailored information and helps the person create a personal plan. At the end of the program, people get a summary of the conversation and a personalized action plan they can print and keep.

Ix Conversations track people’s responses so your organization can provide better support.

Prescribe motivating, personalized health tools

Healthwise Ix Conversations are a great way for you to support more people without using additional staff resources. Your health coaches can prescribe virtual coaching programs and save themselves valuable time on the phone. And you can add the programs to your website, portal, or PHR to reach more people with personalized support. For example:

• Your clinicians can prescribe “Beta-Blockers to Prevent Another Heart Attack” to patients who have recently had a heart attack. The program helps people understand how beta-blockers work and why it’s important to keep taking them.
• For people who want to get in shape, provide “Getting Active” at your portal, website, or PHR. Your members will discover good ways to become more active and to deal with things that might get in their way.
• And for a member considering back surgery for his low back pain, your health coach can prescribe “Dealing With Low Back Pain.” The program explains the pros and cons of surgery and successful nonsurgical ways to manage pain.

Shift to the most engaging health education available

There is simply nothing else available today like Healthwise Ix Conversations. The innovative blend of evidence-based medicine, behavior-change science, and storytelling captures people’s attention, keeps their interest, and motivates them to take real steps to manage their health.

Whether people are healthy and want to stay that way, or are managing a chronic condition, Ix Conversations help them learn to care for themselves and make better health decisions. Taking on some of your highest-impact issues, our virtual health coaches leave a lasting, positive impression on the people you serve.

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Healthwise - Shared Decision Making

Boost shared decision making

Proactively learn about people's preferences related to high-impact health decisions with interactive decision aids. The first decision aids to record people's answers, Healthwise Shared Decision Points allow your care managers and clinicians to provide tailored support and follow-up.

Promote shared decision making with the leading interactive decision aids

Provide step-by-step decision aids to help people make preference-sensitive care decisions. Healthwise Shared Decision Points guide people through understanding their choices, comparing risks versus benefits, expressing their preferences, and making a decision that’s right for them. This effective new approach to shared decision making covers decisions like:

• Surgeries. Should I have surgery for herniated disc? Should I have knee replacement surgery?
• Medical Tests. Should I have an angiogram? Should I have an MRI for low back pain?
• Medicines. Should I take allergy shots? Should I take statins for high cholesterol?
• Health Issues. Should I get a pacemaker? Should I move my loved one into long-term care after a stroke?

At the end of every Shared Decision Point, people receive a summary that they can review with their doctor. This summary is also available for your organization.

Gain valuable insight on decisions

Shared Decision Points can be used wherever people are making decisions about their care:

• Your health coaches can prescribe them to members based on information they learn over the phone.
• Physicians can prescribe them to patients as part of their shared decision-making process.
• Your organization can target Shared Decision Points to people based on triggers from your system when your data shows that they may be considering a decision and could be helped with a decision aid.
• You can also include these decision aids on your website for people who are making preference-sensitive care decisions.

Shared Decision Points record each person’s answers to give you an early view into people’s preferences and values. Your organization can use this information to tailor follow-up support for the decision being made.

Engage people with proven consumer decision aids

Healthwise Shared Decision Points are informed by the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS). They use the perfect combination of consumer-centered design and evidence-based medicine to deliver support that people can trust.

When people use decision aids, they are more likely to choose more conservative, less invasive therapies, without affecting health outcomes. Improve quality, reduce costs, and help people when they need it most with the first decision aids to proactively inform your organization on people’s preferences and values.

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Shared decisons

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