The following is a guest blog by Monica Stout from MedicaSoft.
Half of all U.S. adults, roughly 117 million people, have one or more chronic health conditions. 1 in 4 people have two or more chronic conditions. As a nation, we need some help addressing the chronic disease epidemic. Many patient portals today give patients access to pieces of their health information – lab results, for example – and some will flag upcoming appointments or refill a prescription, but where are the tools and the data in a portal to actually help patients manage chronic conditions, thereby improving their overall health and wellness? Sadly, many patient portals provide a very narrow view, with few opportunities to link data to actions to results in a way that closes the loop between patients and caregivers. Without a complete view of a patient’s health measures, wellness goals, and plans of action – and the tools to manage them – it is very difficult to connect health and wellness to address the whole patient.
Chronic disease management represents one of the best opportunities for a personal health record to link both wellness and healthcare together to affect positive health outcomes. What does it take to improve and maintain wellness? First, you need patient engagement. You need motivated patients who want to do a good job of actively tracking their conditions and working toward wellness goals. How do you convince a chronically ill patient to do this? Start by offering a tool that’s easy for them to track their data – complete with a workflow and user interface that makes it a breeze to enter and distill information at a glance and when they are on the go. Use technology similar to what patients use in their daily lives on their smart phones and laptops. Give patients tools to understand their health and take action based on how they are doing and what their health goals are! Provide a portal that allows the integration of popular wearable devices and lets the patient decide who should have access (Spouses? Caregivers?) to help them enter and manage their information.
Effectively managing chronic disease requires changing poor habits and forming good habits. Sometimes people need a gentle nudge or a push outside of the exam room. A platform that can send out reminders, gamify the experience, and even call a patient can go a long way in helping steer chronic disease patients in a more positive wellness direction. It’s not all about reminders, either. Texts and calls informing patients when they are doing a good job managing their daily wellness habits can also help.
Beyond helping patients, there’s an added benefit to coupling wellness capabilities with a PHR for providers – it has the ability to not only affect chronic disease factors, but to collect the data providers need to participate in the Quality Payment Program; the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). To quickly review, the Quality Payment Program allows clinicians to be rewarded financially for providing high-quality and high value care through Advanced Alternate Payment Models (APMs) or MIPS that are based on various measures. These measures can be integrated into the PHR, allowing physicians to track their patient populations, run reports, submit information to the Quality Payment Program, and receive merit payments.
What are your thoughts? Would you use a PHR to manage a chronic condition you are experiencing? Would you encourage your loved ones to use one? As a provider, how do you feel about a PHR making it easier for you to track MIPS/MACRA measures?
About Monica Stout
Monica is a HIT teleworker in Grand Rapids, Michigan by way of Washington, D.C., who has consulted at several government agencies, including the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). She’s currently the Marketing Director at MedicaSoft. Monica can be found on Twitter @MI_turnaround or @MedicaSoftLLC.
About MedicaSoft
MedicaSoft designs, develops, delivers, and maintains EHR, PHR, and UHR software solutions and HISP services for healthcare providers and patients around the world. MedicaSoft is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene. For more information, visit www.medicasoft.us or connect with us on Twitter @MedicaSoftLLC, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Chronic disease management begins with pre-emptive health care at a primary care level. 1. Get a base line exam when you are an adolescent, college age, and in your 20’s. 2. Primary care physicians are at the forefront of healthcare and exams for kids should be early and often, health care exams that don’t treat symptoms but look for issues and head them off. 3. Dental exams should be 4-5 times a year. 4. Eye exams should be once a year. 5. Schools that implode over vaccinations should do the same over primary care. 6. Bring back targeted and comprehensive physical education, including nutrition classes, signs of what to watch for as body changes, sex and drug education. 7. Use concierge and DPC medical groups.
Barry,
My only fear for what you describe is that many doctors don’t know how to do this kind of wellness care. They’re so trained to deal with the chief complaint that many aren’t great at treating a healthy patient.
[…] In a recent blog, I posted that chronic disease management represents one of the best opportunities for a personal health record or patient portal to link wellness and healthcare together to affect positive health outcomes. What changes in healthcare technology need to be made to more effectively treat and manage patients with chronic conditions? […]