Patient Engagement in Health Treatment

Barbara Ficarra: What’s the overall feeling now do you think of physicians if patients go in hoax things on Twitter or on Facebook about maybe— Dr. Alan Greene: Well, I think that physician attitudes are in the process of changing. We get by and large that we’ve spent a lifetime studying health then have sort of the perspective is there. And there’s this—there’s a fear almost that if people go out, there’s so much bad information out there that might get misled. Barbara Ficarra: Right. Dr. Alan Greene: But the truth of the matter is a few internet studies has been doing so much of looking at what are the actual outcomes, and it turns out people are usually better off when they go search. People are skeptical. They do look at several places and they’re more likely to find good stuff that way than just going to one doctor for a couple of minutes. Barbara Ficarra: Right, and search more. Instead of just finding one site, go to a few different ones and get your information and then bring it to your doctors and collaborate together, patient-doctor— Dr. Alan Greene: It’s collaborative, it’s participatory. There's actually a new society for participatory medicine. It’s trying to teach doctors how to do this to really participate and also to give guidance for the patients who want to really be involved here. Barbara Ficarra: Right. It’s so great that it’s just changing. I mean it’s happening right now and it’s only just going to continue to get more— Dr. Alan Greene: Oh, it’s such an exciting time. It’s scary in some place because it’s changing, but it’s already so much better than it’s even been. Barbara Ficarra: Right. So DrGreene.com has—you have blogs as well where you— Dr. Alan Greene: Yeah, we have blogs and a community and live chat. You can ask questions in real time and then detail that first to some of the questions. There are thousands of pages of kid’s health content. Barbara Ficarra: Right. Now, with the conference today, the Health 2.0 conference, it is just a wealth of information and it’s a lot of technological stuff going on. And I know we kind of geared in towards that in the beginning, but just break this conference down a little bit for what the experts are learning here and what they’re bringing back to the patients. Dr. Alan Greene: It’s a really interesting conference. It’s two different groups that are together for the first time. One is the Health 2.0 people, the user-generated health, all the tools around that. Then there’s also the Center for Information Therapy, and that’s the idea that in every healthcare visit, people should be given information they can really use. It’s not just to write a prescription but also give them something to understand. And so, the have been a little bit fighting each other but really—and there is some valid competition there but for the consumer, we went on both sides. It is great guide because you get information on the visit plus you can have ways to go search on your own. Barbara Ficarra: Right. Dr. Alan Greene: And so, there’s so much energy here, so many little startups, big companies, healthcare organizations, insurers. At a time this year, attendance in medical conferences is pretty much down, maybe 15% to 20%, the mainline ones. And here, you’re bursting at the scenes because we’re right at the center of a big change. Barbara Ficarra: Yeah, definitely a big change. That is definitely packed. I didn’t even get a seat at a table yesterday. I was standing by the door, but it is great that actually the information and the technology department, it has to be intertwined. Dr. Alan Greene: Right. Barbara Ficarra: It’s working together. There can’t be really a separation. Dr. Alan Greene: There's a lot of the real wisdom, the untapped resources people because we all have experiences, things that we’ve learned, and the technology gives us a way to connect and gives us a way to take that sort of connected wisdom and build it into tools where you can automatically get things, too. Barbara Ficarra: Right. And because of the internet that has so much information, how can you—I keep saying patients or consumers—just kind of sort through that to see really what’s based on evidence-base, what they really should need to know because there are a lot of sites out there that might not provide accurate information. So what can they look for? Dr. Alan Greene: Well, there’s a couple of ways to do it, one is sort of in a general way. One of the reasons I’m working with Adam is that we do information that is in varying levels of depth that you want like a one-page summary of something and you can get that. If you want a really deep analysis, you can get that, and it’s always reviewed by at least two physicians. It’s based on evidence. You get what you get from that and it’s solid and good and you find that in a lot of places. Barbara Ficarra: Okay. Dr. Alan Greene: But sometimes what you want is the connection with other patients. So then, what you can find is the community, the thing I mentioned before. There are a lot of different communities like that. Another way is if you have something specific like say diabetes, which is increasingly common, you can go to one of the diabetes sites and help focus you on what the best resources are. Barbara Ficarra: Right. That’s great. It’s great for the viewers and for the consumers to know that they shouldn’t shy away from this site, just investigate them a little bit, look for the information you’re looking for, take away what they want from that site and then bring it to their doctors or nurse practitioners or healthcare providers and get real information that they need. Dr. Alan Greene: And I do recommend being open about that search because the reality is more people go online and look for health information than go into the doctor’s office at any given date or time or turn to their physician to find an answer. Barbara Ficarra: Right. Dr. Alan Greene: But most people still don’t talk to their doctors about that. It’s like these two parallel worlds and if you can bring it up in a constructive way and they can talk about it in a constructive way, you got a lot more value. Barbara Ficarra: Right, and it’s all really to empower the patient, to give them charge and you know, everyone takes charge of their health in so many other ways. They make sure they—but sometimes, they put their health to the side and they take it for granted, but they really need to be focused on it and be prepared. Dr. Alan Greene: Because it’s our life as patients and people, and we’re the ones who’s going to benefit and we’re the ones who’s going to lose if we do it wrong or it’s not wrong, so it’s worth it for our own vitality. Barbara Ficarra: Right, and we know our own bodies as well, too. So that’s really important, too, to know your self and share that then with your doctors to really get— Dr. Alan Greene: Right, and we know what’s going to work in our family and our life, whether I actually would take a pill or not take a pill because I care about the side effects. It doesn’t necessarily—it’s not entirely just what the latest study said. It’s what is actually happening around us. Barbara Ficarra: Right, exactly. So patients shouldn’t have a problem asking if there’s another alternative, too. Like for instance, if a prescription is written. That may very well be the case, but maybe there’s something else, or just a dialogue back and forth I think is the most important thing. Dr. Alan Greene: That’s right. Most of the time, there’s not a single right answer. And I think it’s a great practice to say what’s the other option or what’s another option and it may convince you in the first one. Barbara Ficarra: Right, exactly. There might not be another option but just to get that dialogue going just to see if there are other things, so it’s really about communication on all levels from the internet, with your doctor— Dr. Alan Greene: Within the office and then with other people. Barbara Ficarra: Yeah, that’s right, with other people exactly because that can really give that patient some hope even, too, if they're going through something really tragic. Well, Dr. Greene, thank you so very much for joining us. Dr. Alan Greene: Barbara, great to meet you today. Barbara Ficarra: Thank you. Thanks. I’m Barbara Ficarra for healthin30.com and icyou.com. Thanks so much.