By Panos Sechopoulos, MD

Many can benefit from understanding what needs to be done to maintain good health, including those with chronic conditions like diabetes. It’s important that diabetic patients know the role a proper diet and exercise play in successfully managing their diabetes, as well as the signs, symptoms, and risks they can expect if they do not manage their sugar levels well. Being well informed can also help heart patients pursue healthier lifestyle changes to lower their risk for more aggressive medical treatments in the future.       

According to a study in The American Journal of Medicine, “patient education significantly improves compliance with medication across a broad range of conditions and disease severities,” while a lack of compliance is due to a lack of knowledge and education that “is associated with poor clinical outcomes, increased hospitalizations, lower quality of life, and higher overall health costs.”

Just as education about nutrition, exercise, screenings, checkups, and other preventive measures can help people avoid illness, having access to complete and accurate health information can also help patients with chronic diseases better navigate and manage their conditions to live longer, healthier lives.

Patient education also benefits providers, as they can use education strategies to better prepare their patients for an upcoming procedure, as well as provide more guidance on how best to take care of their health post procedure. Patients with chronic conditions can benefit from education in better managing their health at home. In addition, providers can utilize educational tools to help their patients with chronic conditions better manage their health at home.

However, even with all the benefits of keeping patients well-informed on their health journey, providers can still struggle to keep non-compliant patients engaged with their care. Additionally, patients who are motivated to learn more about their health and how best to manage it can have issues trying to access their medical records.

Technologies like HealthBook+ can help bridge those gaps, providing crucial insights to patients and comprehensive information to the care providers who treat them.

Access to Complete Health Data Empowers Patients and Providers

All too often, providers’ ability to provide optimum care to patients is limited by incomplete access to patient data. When patients own their medical records that include information on test and imaging results, family health history, immunization records, and screening due dates, as examples, they can better understand their health history and also better inform their providers leading to the most appropriate care. Providers benefit in many ways, including:

• Providing more coordinated, efficient care.

• More effectively diagnosing patients, reducing medical errors, and providing safer care.

• Improving patient communication

• Coordinating care with other clinicians and sharing complete and accurate information.

• Conducting safer, more reliable medication prescribing

HealthBook+ can help providers and patients by providing a digital-first care and guidance platform that allows people to “own their health” by having complete access to their personal health data. The platform aggregates patient health data from many sources — including electronic health records, wearable health trackers, and self-reporting via simple health checks — and gives patients the ability to grant providers access to the data at all times, whether patients are in their offices, traveling, or experiencing a medical emergency.

While this continuous and comprehensive access to data allows healthcare providers to identify current patient needs, HealthBook+ can also help providers shift from reactive care to proactive care.

From Reaction to Prevention

According to the National Council on Aging, nearly 56 million Americans are 65 or older and the numbers continue to rise, with more than 10,000 people turning 65 every day in the United States. The population of older adults is projected to reach 94.7 million by 2060, but why is this important?

Because, not only is our older population growing at a considerable rate, it is also disproportionately affected by chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease. Nearly 95 percent have at least one chronic condition, with nearly 80 percent having two or more.

While multiple chronic diseases account for two-thirds of all health care costs and 93 percent of Medicare spending, less than three percent of U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on prevention.

These statistics are unsustainable.

Part of the solution includes shifting from reactive to proactive care. This can help ease the burden on providers by proactively engaging with patients early in their disease process to mitigate chronic health conditions, promoting a healthier lifestyle leading to better outcomes.

Leveraging the Power of Proactive Care

Proactive care fosters dialogue between patients and providers, giving both the opportunity to work together in managing their health. When patients can track their health over time and have information and tools to manage it, they will be more engaged in their health journey. Proactive care can lead to the prevention of chronic and other conditions and help patients live a healthier life.

HealthBook+ leverages the power of proactive care and advanced AI to help individuals live their healthiest lives by helping them identify their next best health actions. Designed by physicians, the HealthBook+ digital-first, early identification and care platform identifies potential conditions early on and facilitates access to healthcare screening and services through secure chats, and education. The platform’s AI models are continuously reviewed by Healthbook+’s Medical Advisory Board, and are powered by patients’ comprehensive health information, sourced from provider hosted EHR systems, personal health trackers, and self-reporting.

This continuous collection of data provides a detailed view of a patient’s conditions, helps clinicians detect adverse events, and streamlines care coordination. Together, these capabilities can help providers make the best care decisions for and with their patients.

Expanding Access and Options

Data-driven technology can positively transform healthcare for patients and providers. If providers can leverage technology to gain insights about how to best apply their time and talents — and patients can use it to better manage their health — the healthcare experience will be improved, treatment plans will be more efficient and effective, and, most importantly, patients will live healthier lives.

At HealthBook+, we empower health and well-being through innovative technologies that guide and enable better health decisions. Click to learn more.