Knocking down barriers between healthcare providers and consumers is generally a good idea, but is there such a thing as too much patient education? Apparently so, at least in some circles.

In the Health News section of UPI.com, a recent story notes just such a situation exists when it comes to children with cancer. More specifically, it exists for parents and adult caregivers of kids with cancer. As noted in the article, “Parents of kids with cancer distrust Web“, researchers at the University of (more…)

Throughout the world, telehealth services have shown their merit. The United States, however, has taken a bit longer to embrace it. Fortunately, telehealth, also referred to as telemedicine, is gaining bigger and stronger footholds in the U.S. The legal obstacles are being ironed out and reimbursement for telehealth services is improving.

One of the primary driving forces for this change is the lack of sufficient access to medical specialists for many people, especially those outside of major metropolitan areas. Specialists often have tremendous waiting lists; it can take months to gain an appointment. Plus, people in rural areas often must drive for hours to reach specialty care centers. (more…)

Hal and Sal were each plugged into their own digital worlds, one with earphones, the other with a headset. Hal was listening to tunes while watching Sal wipe out zombies, gaming with some online pals. Sal shot a blast from his favorite weapon, Thunder Gun, sending the closest zombie writhing. As he fell in spasmodic convulsions, Hal said, “Looks like he’s got epilepsy.”

Sal turned and gave Hal a curious look. His hesitation caused him to lose focus and his last game life got zapped from a zombie sneak attack.

Sal asked,” What was that? Did you say something about ‘epil-Pepsi’?” (more…)

One factor that impacts the skyrocketing costs of healthcare is the rate of health literacy, or perhaps I should say, the incredibly low rate of health literacy. In the United States, only 12% of adults are considered to have “Proficient” health literacy. In other words, a full 88% of Americans are not sufficiently (more…)

With the right asthma education and supervision, 85% of asthma patients can bring their condition under good control. So says a report in The Archives of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in August, 2011. According to that same report, poorly-controlled asthma resulted 50% higher direct costs, 800% higher indirect costs (such as missed days of parental work), and huge academic impact on children from missed school days.

But asthma is complex. Asthma care and asthma attack prevention take some serious understanding to do well. Without the right tools, without the right kind of educational options that work for them, consumers face a huge challenge in understanding the complexities of asthma and its management. (more…)

The United States Department of Health and Human Services released The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy in 2010. It’s goal? To encourage the healthcare industry to make health information and services easier to understand and use.

“Health literacy is needed to make health reform a reality,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Without health information that makes sense to them, people can’t access cost effective, safe, and high quality health services. But, HHS can’t do it alone,” she added. “We need payers and providers of health care services to communicate clearly and make the necessary changes to improve their communication with consumers, patients, and beneficiaries.” (more…)

OK, seriously, how many of you out there ever really thought you could use the terms “diabetes education” and “fun” in the same sentence?

I hear you. Those wiseacres of you out there are saying something like, “Sure. Easy. ‘Diabetes education is anything but fun.’” You know that’s not what I meant. What I meant was how often has diabetes education, or any educational stuff about any health topic, ever really been fun?

You know how it is. Diabetes education almost always involves some dry pamphlet or a long, boring book with way too many facts and far too many ultra-big words. They’re usually far, far too long and most times – come on, admit it – you either fall asleep before you finish the first page or you put it down with the unkept promise to get back to it after the headache it gave you goes away. (more…)

Hal burst through the back door at the home of his buddy, Miguel, shouting, “Yo, bro, whaddya…” He stopped dead in his tracks before he finished his question when he saw what Miguel was doing: Miguel was sitting at the family computer in the back hall cubby wearing a headset with an attached boom mic. A big, bold “TELEHEALTH VISIT – IN SESSION” was flashing on his computer screen above the smiling face of Nurse Nightingale.

Miguel was at the computer; that was no surpise. Miguel was either on his computer or playing basketball. Seemed like that was all he ever did… well, except for taking frequent breaks to eat or grab a snack, usally an apple. The big surprise, the real sentence-stopper, was that Miguel was in the middle of sticking his finger, enough to get BLOOD!

Miguel waived Hal to silence as he placed the single drop of blood onto a little plastic strip that was sticking out of something that sort of looked like a small cell phone. Hal shut his gaping mouth as Miguel said, “Looks good, Nurse N. I’m 99 and doin’ fine.” Hal could see the number “99″ on the little screen (more…)