Media

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Miki Peer

“If patient engagement were a drug, it would be the blockbuster drug of the century and malpractice not to use it.” Leonard Kish1

The model of health care delivery has changed dramatically in recent decades. Currently, focus is centred on increasing efficiency and care co-ordination while maintaining healthcare quality. Over the years there have also been significant shifts in how individuals perceive their health, and their roles and responsibilities with respect to personal health. The result is that patients today face an increasingly complex process of seeking and using health care services. To benefit optimally from available services, patients must now participate in their care – that is, patients must be active and engaged2 – and this requires extensive skills, knowledge, energy, and motivation2,3.

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Miki Peer

One mHealth feature that has exploded in popularity over the last year is that of ‘biometric sensors’ or ‘bioelectronics’. These are sensors you wear on your body that measure physiologic functions, like heart rate or body temperature, in real time and then feed the information back to you (or your smartphone). You’ve likely already heard of some of these gadgets, like Fitbit for example, but you may not have heard some of the terms being applied to the use of these sensors like ‘body hacking’ and the ‘quantified self’1-3.

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Miki Peer

We recently reviewed Google Analytics’ MEMOTEXT website results to gain an updated picture of how visitors arrived at our site. We were very interested to see what were the most popular search terms so that we can continue to address these issues, but also what were some of the less common terms and phrases that perhaps we could speak to in more detail in future blogs and/or newsletters. Our goal is to focus on the issues of most importance to our returning visitors while at the same time attracting new visitors. To make sense of the data, I cluster the search terms and phrases and then consider the implications of these results.

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Miki Peer

In a previous blog post, we focused on the use of cell phones and smartphones in healthcare, however we cannot ignore the fact that interest in and use of tablets has seen tremendous growth over the last year and continues to gain momentum. The tablet appeared to be one of the hottest ‘tech’ gifts this past holiday season1, but it is also gaining in popularity within the healthcare industry. The 2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, released in early December 2012, reported that 80% of physicians use a mobile device to directly shape and improve patient care and while laptops and workstations on wheels were the most popular devices, a preference for tablets is on the rise2

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Miki Peer

PATH Workshop Summary

I recently had the pleasure of attending a two-day workshop entitled Introduction to Health Technology Assessment (HTA)1, put on by the Programs for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH) Research Institute2. I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of knowledge of the speakers at this workshop, and by the scope of information covered in a relatively short amount of time (this was the first time that the workshop was cut down from its usual 3-4 day length to 2 days). In this week’s blog I will share some things I learned about HTA, a highly-active and growing field with a substantial impact on healthcare.

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Miki Peer

Over the past few months we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Grace Soyao and Bob Waite of Self Care Catalysts to learn about each other’s products and services. The overall goal of these meetings is to establish linkages that can benefit each of our companies, but also to provide advantages for future clients and partnerships.

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Elisha Zavier

So we know that non-compliance has enormous impacts on healthcare in both patient quality of life and unnecessary costs to an already overburdened healthcare system. There are direct and indirect ramifications of patient non-compliance that seep into various facets of everyday life – including the ability of patients, especially those affected by chronic diseases, to perform at their jobs. If you think about it, it makes sense – a person who isn’t compliant with their Diabetes treatment and lifestyle won’t be able to work in the same manner as someone who is. This affects both job performance as well as job attendance.

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Miki Peer

There are four different kinds of social support: i) emotional support, ii) instrumental (or practical) support, iii) informational support, and iv) appraisal. This week’s blog will focus on an exercise you can use to improve your level of social support. This exercise is particularly useful to increase practical support and, with some practice, can also be applied to other forms of support. It can be helpful for anyone, but especially for those struggling to manage their health.

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Miki Peer

This week’s focus is on presenting an overview of the factors that commonly affect adherence to treatment. The examples given are not an exhaustive list, but rather an introduction to the topic.

The World Health Organization identifies five interacting dimensions of adherence1: 1) Patient-related factors, 2) Social/economic factors, 3) Condition-related factors, 4) Therapy-related factors, and 5) Health system/healthcare team.

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Miki Peer

Previously we introduced the concept of social support and presented an exercise and tips on how to improve the level of social support you receive from those closest to you. Another important way of maximizing the social support in your life is by seeking out new forms of social support. There are several ways to meet new people and make new connections, but this week we will focus on a medium that allows you to do this from the comfort of your own home – that medium is technology. Specifically today’s blog focuses on internet usage; in a future blog we will turn our attention to the use of mobile phones.

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Miki Peer

We were delighted to come across a short article in the Journal for Patient Compliance that touched on the very reasons why patient-to-patient dialogues are important. The article, titled “Choosing Not to Take Medication: How patients can help other patients get better”1, highlights two key benefits arising from interactions between patients. First, patients offer each other valuable insights into living with an illness, and strategies for managing self-care that are drawn from lived experiences. For example, a patient may share with another patient a tip that worked for them in managing a medication side effect. The second benefit relates to the person that is sharing information; namely, the feeling of being useful and/or needed.