PREPARED PATIENT BLOG

Patients and experts explore what it takes to find good health care and make the most of it.

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Matt Seeks Health Insurance: A Young Adult Falls Through the Cracks of Health Reform

Trudy Lieberman | August 26, 2010

Antibiotic Resistance, Evidence-Based Medicine and the End of the World as We Know It

Jessie Gruman | August 24, 2010
Delivering evidence-based medicine is a deceptively elegant and simple goal.' But new findings about the increase in antibiotic resistance challenge us to consider just how complicated and challenging it is to actually define and deliver evidence-based care.'

New Solid Evidence Showing the Impact of Physician Communication on Our Engagement in Care

Jessie Gruman | August 19, 2010
Ask us if we are more likely to use a medication as directed if our doctors explain why a specific drug might be helpful, how to take it so that it is most effective and what its possible side effects are and then discuss whether we think we are willing and able to take it.

From the Department of "Gosh! Why Didn't I Think of That?"

Jessie Gruman | August 18, 2010
For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong.- Henry Louis Mencken

Patient-Centered Care Should Minimize Post-Surgical Surprises

Jessie Gruman | August 17, 2010
Rick Hamlin, in an op-ed essay last week, recounted how his surgeon assured him that he would be able to go on a family vacation to Spain three weeks after his open-heart surgery. In the New York Times piece, Rick described his disappointment and despair at the unexpected six months of fatigue, pain and depression that constituted his recovery.

Sorting Through the Indecipherable 'Explanation of Benefits' Is Becoming a Required Skill

Trudy Lieberman | August 16, 2010

Making Sure Minnie Doesn't Bounceback

James Cooper, MD | August 10, 2010

More People Choosing Consumer-Directed Health Plans---Pitfalls and All

Trudy Lieberman | August 9, 2010

Hurry Up Tomorrow

Molly Mettler | August 5, 2010

You Want Me to Discover WHAT on My Personal Health Record?

Jessie Gruman | August 3, 2010
The Robert Wood Johnson-funded Project HealthDesign primer on Personal Health Records (PHRs) describes the new PHR both as a repository for information related to one's health care and a way to record observations about daily living (ODLs). We're meant to track these observations the amount and quality of our sleep; what we ate; our blood pressure; our symptoms in the belief that such information will shape daily decisions and allow for a more productive discussion with (our) clinician.

More Than Pie in the Sky: Meaningful Use and the Engaged Consumer

Molly Mettler | August 2, 2010

Resources to help people find good care and make the most of it.