Our perception of health and risk is all wrong and instantly accessible media is one of the key reasons. The recent coverage locally in the Washington area demonstrates the point well. A quick Google search of "Metro Crash" in the news reveals a total of 6,132 results (no doubt this will increase over time). A tragedy occurred on the Washington DC Metro when one train collided with one car riding up and over the other. There were several fatalities (9 at the time of writing this post) and a range of injuries from severe to minor. Coverage in the hour long evening news on the night of the tragedy could be summarized as follows:
Swine Flu H1N1). We need to filter information and it is the link to our clinician that helps provider that input and balance. Id be the first to encourage everyone to be their own primary care practitioner - in fact I said so last week but this has to be balanced with appropriate input from trained experienced professionals. There are a range of tools to help diagnose problems including some online symptom checkers and they have a place in the range of choices available to us. But this is not about replacing the education and experience of your clinical team. This is about supporting them with appropriate information.
In a recent discussion with a clinical colleague he was adamant that clinicians must use technology and clinical systems to be able to deliver better and safer care. I agree that technology must be used to help support the decision making - in fact I think it is as much about information as it is about technology. Technology just helps bring the information closer to the decision making point. This can be as simple as patients searching for information and bringing in printed material to the consultation (I know to some clinicians this is their nightmare but I remain convinced that there is no stronger more dedicated advocate for the successful outcome than the patient themselves).
But getting to this data and providing it not only in digital form but better yet in a form that can be consumed and processed by electronic systems takes this to the next level. Linking this information to the full Healthstory allows for some automated processing and relevance mark up that will help in filtering useful from distracting data.
Personal health management includes the capture of information and the intelligent sharing of this between the patient, the clinician and clinical systems. This is a team approach and the team will help balance the perception of risk. Finding balance is one of the keys to navigating through life. Have you found balance and if so how. What's your perception of coverage, risk and the media coverage distorting our perception of risk.
- Evening News Length: 60 Minutes
- Advertisements Time: ~20 mins
- Time dedicated to the Crash: 35 mins
- Time dedicated to remaining news: ~5 mins
- Traffic's most recent data for 2007: 44 fatalities (US total fatalities 41,059)
- DC Metro 15 (subject to change based on the most recent crash) over the last 20 years
- Evening News Length: 60 Minutes
- Advertisements Time: ~20 mins
- Time dedicated to the Heart Failure and Cancer: 20 mins
- Time dedicated to Cerebrovascular Disease: 4 mins
- Time dedicated to remaining causes of death 6 mins
In a recent discussion with a clinical colleague he was adamant that clinicians must use technology and clinical systems to be able to deliver better and safer care. I agree that technology must be used to help support the decision making - in fact I think it is as much about information as it is about technology. Technology just helps bring the information closer to the decision making point. This can be as simple as patients searching for information and bringing in printed material to the consultation (I know to some clinicians this is their nightmare but I remain convinced that there is no stronger more dedicated advocate for the successful outcome than the patient themselves).
But getting to this data and providing it not only in digital form but better yet in a form that can be consumed and processed by electronic systems takes this to the next level. Linking this information to the full Healthstory allows for some automated processing and relevance mark up that will help in filtering useful from distracting data.
Personal health management includes the capture of information and the intelligent sharing of this between the patient, the clinician and clinical systems. This is a team approach and the team will help balance the perception of risk. Finding balance is one of the keys to navigating through life. Have you found balance and if so how. What's your perception of coverage, risk and the media coverage distorting our perception of risk.
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