The average patient forgets 50% of the information provided by the physician within 5 minutes of leaving the office and, on average, remembers only four points made during that encounter.1 To make matters worse, only 25% of patients are supplied with written handouts regarding their condition, and only half of the information distributed is written at or below the standard accepted reading level.2
Critical Need for Comprehensive and Comprehensible Information
This poses a problem not only for patients, who would like to know as much as possible about their ailments, but also for physicians, whose time is indeed precious. Many times, for example when treating patients with methotrexate, we have far more than four important points to convey. Moreover, when patients feel that they are not given adequate information from their physicians, they may seek it from other sources and may not find accurate information.
Patients desire information not only on the nature of their conditions but also on their causes, severity, treatments, and prognoses.3 As they become increasingly responsible for making their own healthcare decisions, and in order to make well-informed ones, patients need information that presents a full picture of their diagnosis and treatment plan.
Considering the Information Options
The Internet
In the new electronic and Internet-based era, it is easy to get lost among the different WWWs and hard to know what information out there can be trusted. So while patients have access to information, much of it is difficult to decipher. Ideally, the information should come from their most trusted source — their physicians.
Doctors’ Handouts
Some resources are already available to dermatologists to help educate patients. Pamphlets from the American Academy of Dermatology and the National Psoriasis Foundation are two readily available sources.
The Best of Both Worlds: “Prescribed” Electronic Information
Internet resources, however, offer physicians new options for providing patients with the knowledge they need to make appropriate healthcare decisions.
Enter Vivacare
In this article, we review a particular patient education service, Vivacare (www.vivacare.com), which provides hundreds of well-written, accurate, and evidence-based articles explaining dermatologic conditions, procedures, and medications, in a user-friendly Internet-based format.
Description of the Available Services and Resources
Vivacare’s approach is to deliver health information to patients via physicians. Vivacare provides free patient education services that can be tailored to specific diagnoses and treatment plans.
With trusted and reliable sources, including the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, the National Institutes of Health, National Rosacea Foundation, and National Psoriasis Foundation, Vivacare combines hundreds of resources into one online library.
The resulting Internet-based healthcare library is practice-branded for each physician. In less than 5 minutes, physicians and other healthcare professionals can create a library at a unique Web address using their name or the name of their practice, followed by “fromyourdoctor.com.” With Internet-savvy options such as creating a banner for the Web site; attaching contact information for your practice; providing maps, and highlighting staff names, patients receive direct information from their physicians and are provided with an accurate and evidence-based forum to research and manage their healthcare problems.
The services are available at no cost to physicians and other healthcare professionals. (The company instead derives its revenue from pharmaceutical and device manufacturers who wish to enhance content about their products.)
Online Features
On each Web site created by physicians, patients are able to navigate through the online library, with the ability to choose a topic by either browsing through the directory or typing a particular query.
Each topic has its own separate page devoted to it, with easy-to-read headings that include an overview, treatment modalities, medications and surgical options. Some of the most commonly searched topics include acne, psoriasis, and skin cancer (Figures 1 to 3). Patients can gather information about diagnoses, treatments and prognoses of these conditions, and join support groups, browse through books on the subject, and download self-care handouts.
With easy-to-navigate online menus, patients can access an exhaustive amount of information on many topics.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Certainly the strengths of this online education resource lie in the vast amount of information and user-friendly design.
The readability of each topic, however, is particularly challenging. Some of the Web pages seem filled with medical jargon, which would intimidate any reader. Also, most of the topics’ main pages lack any colors or pictures, leaving instead a dull laundry list of links to follow.
In surgically-oriented specialties, where physicians typically perform similar operations on their patients, the use of such a diverse electronic library is not essential. For a medically-oriented specialty, however, such as dermatology, where there are as many treatment plans as there are patients, such a resource becomes vital.
Vivacare provides detailed information for patients on different conditions, medications, and procedures — everything from acne to Zoderm and many in between.
Regulatory Compliance
Vivacare provides its services in compliance with HIPAA regulations and meets all security and privacy standards. Patients are assured that Vivacare has developed this service while protecting confidential data.
Summary of Benefits
- Vivacare provides practical and easy-to-understand content that is focused on helping patients understand their diagnoses and manage their conditions.
- This content is thoroughly reviewed by its editorial board, which includes both medical writers and physicians.
- Tools such as the “informational prescription pad” enable physicians to direct patients to their Web sites and suggest topics to be researched.
- By offering patients a convenient way to gain a greater understanding of their conditions and their treatments, patients may increase their compliance with physicians’ selected treatment plans.
- Physicians whose patients have a better understanding of their conditions and how to manage them and who are more compliant with their medications are likely to be more satisfied with their care, leading to a reduction in the number of complaints, interim office visits, and interim patient calls.
Narrowing the Gap Between Patients and Physicians
It was once argued that, “through various devices, such as making patients wait, the white coat, and the filling in of forms, the patient and doctor are marked as one of different status.”4
The environment that created this sentiment was one in which the physicians controlled the information and the access to it. By providing patients with an easy and effective informational tool to better manage their health, Vivacare has certainly bridged this gap between patient and practitioner.
The average patient forgets 50% of the information provided by the physician within 5 minutes of leaving the office and, on average, remembers only four points made during that encounter.1 To make matters worse, only 25% of patients are supplied with written handouts regarding their condition, and only half of the information distributed is written at or below the standard accepted reading level.2
Critical Need for Comprehensive and Comprehensible Information
This poses a problem not only for patients, who would like to know as much as possible about their ailments, but also for physicians, whose time is indeed precious. Many times, for example when treating patients with methotrexate, we have far more than four important points to convey. Moreover, when patients feel that they are not given adequate information from their physicians, they may seek it from other sources and may not find accurate information.
Patients desire information not only on the nature of their conditions but also on their causes, severity, treatments, and prognoses.3 As they become increasingly responsible for making their own healthcare decisions, and in order to make well-informed ones, patients need information that presents a full picture of their diagnosis and treatment plan.
Considering the Information Options
The Internet
In the new electronic and Internet-based era, it is easy to get lost among the different WWWs and hard to know what information out there can be trusted. So while patients have access to information, much of it is difficult to decipher. Ideally, the information should come from their most trusted source — their physicians.
Doctors’ Handouts
Some resources are already available to dermatologists to help educate patients. Pamphlets from the American Academy of Dermatology and the National Psoriasis Foundation are two readily available sources.
The Best of Both Worlds: “Prescribed” Electronic Information
Internet resources, however, offer physicians new options for providing patients with the knowledge they need to make appropriate healthcare decisions.
Enter Vivacare
In this article, we review a particular patient education service, Vivacare (www.vivacare.com), which provides hundreds of well-written, accurate, and evidence-based articles explaining dermatologic conditions, procedures, and medications, in a user-friendly Internet-based format.
Description of the Available Services and Resources
Vivacare’s approach is to deliver health information to patients via physicians. Vivacare provides free patient education services that can be tailored to specific diagnoses and treatment plans.
With trusted and reliable sources, including the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, the National Institutes of Health, National Rosacea Foundation, and National Psoriasis Foundation, Vivacare combines hundreds of resources into one online library.
The resulting Internet-based healthcare library is practice-branded for each physician. In less than 5 minutes, physicians and other healthcare professionals can create a library at a unique Web address using their name or the name of their practice, followed by “fromyourdoctor.com.” With Internet-savvy options such as creating a banner for the Web site; attaching contact information for your practice; providing maps, and highlighting staff names, patients receive direct information from their physicians and are provided with an accurate and evidence-based forum to research and manage their healthcare problems.
The services are available at no cost to physicians and other healthcare professionals. (The company instead derives its revenue from pharmaceutical and device manufacturers who wish to enhance content about their products.)
Online Features
On each Web site created by physicians, patients are able to navigate through the online library, with the ability to choose a topic by either browsing through the directory or typing a particular query.
Each topic has its own separate page devoted to it, with easy-to-read headings that include an overview, treatment modalities, medications and surgical options. Some of the most commonly searched topics include acne, psoriasis, and skin cancer (Figures 1 to 3). Patients can gather information about diagnoses, treatments and prognoses of these conditions, and join support groups, browse through books on the subject, and download self-care handouts.
With easy-to-navigate online menus, patients can access an exhaustive amount of information on many topics.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Certainly the strengths of this online education resource lie in the vast amount of information and user-friendly design.
The readability of each topic, however, is particularly challenging. Some of the Web pages seem filled with medical jargon, which would intimidate any reader. Also, most of the topics’ main pages lack any colors or pictures, leaving instead a dull laundry list of links to follow.
In surgically-oriented specialties, where physicians typically perform similar operations on their patients, the use of such a diverse electronic library is not essential. For a medically-oriented specialty, however, such as dermatology, where there are as many treatment plans as there are patients, such a resource becomes vital.
Vivacare provides detailed information for patients on different conditions, medications, and procedures — everything from acne to Zoderm and many in between.
Regulatory Compliance
Vivacare provides its services in compliance with HIPAA regulations and meets all security and privacy standards. Patients are assured that Vivacare has developed this service while protecting confidential data.
Summary of Benefits
- Vivacare provides practical and easy-to-understand content that is focused on helping patients understand their diagnoses and manage their conditions.
- This content is thoroughly reviewed by its editorial board, which includes both medical writers and physicians.
- Tools such as the “informational prescription pad” enable physicians to direct patients to their Web sites and suggest topics to be researched.
- By offering patients a convenient way to gain a greater understanding of their conditions and their treatments, patients may increase their compliance with physicians’ selected treatment plans.
- Physicians whose patients have a better understanding of their conditions and how to manage them and who are more compliant with their medications are likely to be more satisfied with their care, leading to a reduction in the number of complaints, interim office visits, and interim patient calls.
Narrowing the Gap Between Patients and Physicians
It was once argued that, “through various devices, such as making patients wait, the white coat, and the filling in of forms, the patient and doctor are marked as one of different status.”4
The environment that created this sentiment was one in which the physicians controlled the information and the access to it. By providing patients with an easy and effective informational tool to better manage their health, Vivacare has certainly bridged this gap between patient and practitioner.
The average patient forgets 50% of the information provided by the physician within 5 minutes of leaving the office and, on average, remembers only four points made during that encounter.1 To make matters worse, only 25% of patients are supplied with written handouts regarding their condition, and only half of the information distributed is written at or below the standard accepted reading level.2
Critical Need for Comprehensive and Comprehensible Information
This poses a problem not only for patients, who would like to know as much as possible about their ailments, but also for physicians, whose time is indeed precious. Many times, for example when treating patients with methotrexate, we have far more than four important points to convey. Moreover, when patients feel that they are not given adequate information from their physicians, they may seek it from other sources and may not find accurate information.
Patients desire information not only on the nature of their conditions but also on their causes, severity, treatments, and prognoses.3 As they become increasingly responsible for making their own healthcare decisions, and in order to make well-informed ones, patients need information that presents a full picture of their diagnosis and treatment plan.
Considering the Information Options
The Internet
In the new electronic and Internet-based era, it is easy to get lost among the different WWWs and hard to know what information out there can be trusted. So while patients have access to information, much of it is difficult to decipher. Ideally, the information should come from their most trusted source — their physicians.
Doctors’ Handouts
Some resources are already available to dermatologists to help educate patients. Pamphlets from the American Academy of Dermatology and the National Psoriasis Foundation are two readily available sources.
The Best of Both Worlds: “Prescribed” Electronic Information
Internet resources, however, offer physicians new options for providing patients with the knowledge they need to make appropriate healthcare decisions.
Enter Vivacare
In this article, we review a particular patient education service, Vivacare (www.vivacare.com), which provides hundreds of well-written, accurate, and evidence-based articles explaining dermatologic conditions, procedures, and medications, in a user-friendly Internet-based format.
Description of the Available Services and Resources
Vivacare’s approach is to deliver health information to patients via physicians. Vivacare provides free patient education services that can be tailored to specific diagnoses and treatment plans.
With trusted and reliable sources, including the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, the National Institutes of Health, National Rosacea Foundation, and National Psoriasis Foundation, Vivacare combines hundreds of resources into one online library.
The resulting Internet-based healthcare library is practice-branded for each physician. In less than 5 minutes, physicians and other healthcare professionals can create a library at a unique Web address using their name or the name of their practice, followed by “fromyourdoctor.com.” With Internet-savvy options such as creating a banner for the Web site; attaching contact information for your practice; providing maps, and highlighting staff names, patients receive direct information from their physicians and are provided with an accurate and evidence-based forum to research and manage their healthcare problems.
The services are available at no cost to physicians and other healthcare professionals. (The company instead derives its revenue from pharmaceutical and device manufacturers who wish to enhance content about their products.)
Online Features
On each Web site created by physicians, patients are able to navigate through the online library, with the ability to choose a topic by either browsing through the directory or typing a particular query.
Each topic has its own separate page devoted to it, with easy-to-read headings that include an overview, treatment modalities, medications and surgical options. Some of the most commonly searched topics include acne, psoriasis, and skin cancer (Figures 1 to 3). Patients can gather information about diagnoses, treatments and prognoses of these conditions, and join support groups, browse through books on the subject, and download self-care handouts.
With easy-to-navigate online menus, patients can access an exhaustive amount of information on many topics.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Certainly the strengths of this online education resource lie in the vast amount of information and user-friendly design.
The readability of each topic, however, is particularly challenging. Some of the Web pages seem filled with medical jargon, which would intimidate any reader. Also, most of the topics’ main pages lack any colors or pictures, leaving instead a dull laundry list of links to follow.
In surgically-oriented specialties, where physicians typically perform similar operations on their patients, the use of such a diverse electronic library is not essential. For a medically-oriented specialty, however, such as dermatology, where there are as many treatment plans as there are patients, such a resource becomes vital.
Vivacare provides detailed information for patients on different conditions, medications, and procedures — everything from acne to Zoderm and many in between.
Regulatory Compliance
Vivacare provides its services in compliance with HIPAA regulations and meets all security and privacy standards. Patients are assured that Vivacare has developed this service while protecting confidential data.
Summary of Benefits
- Vivacare provides practical and easy-to-understand content that is focused on helping patients understand their diagnoses and manage their conditions.
- This content is thoroughly reviewed by its editorial board, which includes both medical writers and physicians.
- Tools such as the “informational prescription pad” enable physicians to direct patients to their Web sites and suggest topics to be researched.
- By offering patients a convenient way to gain a greater understanding of their conditions and their treatments, patients may increase their compliance with physicians’ selected treatment plans.
- Physicians whose patients have a better understanding of their conditions and how to manage them and who are more compliant with their medications are likely to be more satisfied with their care, leading to a reduction in the number of complaints, interim office visits, and interim patient calls.
Narrowing the Gap Between Patients and Physicians
It was once argued that, “through various devices, such as making patients wait, the white coat, and the filling in of forms, the patient and doctor are marked as one of different status.”4
The environment that created this sentiment was one in which the physicians controlled the information and the access to it. By providing patients with an easy and effective informational tool to better manage their health, Vivacare has certainly bridged this gap between patient and practitioner.
