Score One for the Patient: Information Therapy Conference Promises to Revolutionize the Role of the Patient in Health Care

PARK CITY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2004--The future of health care will be built around informed patients encouraged by their doctors to share in treatment decisions and to actively participate in their own care. That is the take-home message on the opening day at the third annual Information Therapy Conference in Park City, Utah. Information therapy (Ix) is the prescription of specific, evidence-based medical information to patients, caregivers, or consumers at just the right time to help them make a specific health decision or behavior change.

Nearly 200 conference attendees, who range from physicians to health plan executives, are hearing from speakers about the benefits of the informed patient and how leading organizations gain value by offering Ix(R) services. Each perspective points out how information prescriptions for patients are making a difference. Hospitals, clinics, and health plans all provide better service and care when consumers make better health decisions.

“Turning on the Light: Illuminating the Care Experience Through a New Consumer Paradigm for Quality Measurement.”

Presentation Highlights

-- A new model to help patients prepare for clinic visits using information prescriptions -- by William Kormos, MD, MPH, education director at the John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Marcy Bergeron, RN, MS, ANP, director of quality innovation and patient education at Massachusetts General Hospital

-- A new strategy by a major health plan to activate consumers in their own care -- by Reed Tuckson, MD, senior vice president for Consumer Health and Medical Care Advancement at UnitedHealth Group

-- A look at how a practicing physician has enriched his relationships with his patients by prescribing information -- by Daniel Z. Sands, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief medical officer at Zix Corporation

-- A famed health care researcher's view of how prescribing information to patients can help close the gap between the science and practice of medicine -- by John Wennberg, MD, director of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth College

New Ix White Paper Released

Conference participants today are the first to receive the new white paper, "Turning on the Light: Illuminating the Care Experience Through a New Consumer Paradigm for Quality Measurement." Authors Joshua Seidman, PhD, executive director of the Center for Information Therapy, and Margaret E. O'Kane, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, help redefine how quality of care can be measured from the patient's point of view.

According to Seidman and O'Kane, consumers' perspectives on how the health care system meets their needs, supports their decision making, and guides them to better health can provide a valuable model for quality measurement. This approach is particularly important when evidence-based medicine does not give clear answers on how care should be delivered. For example, researchers estimate that good evidence exists for only 10 to 40 percent of what clinicians do every day in their practices, leaving the other 60 to 90 percent unknown.

The authors say that ultimately a shift in measurement strategies can stimulate:

-- Improved clinical quality.

-- Increased efficiencies.

-- Reduced malpractice risk.

To request a copy of "Turning on the Light" and to read more about the 2004 Information Therapy Conference, visit www.informationtherapy.org or call 202-945-6810.

About the Center for Information Therapy

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Information Therapy (CIT) is a division of Healthwise, a nonprofit organization that has been helping people make better health decisions since 1975. The CIT is developing the information therapy concept into the foundation for a new patient-centered health care system. For more information, visit www.informationtherapy.org or call 202-945-6810.