Why Measure your Patient's Health Status, Risk Level or Disability?

Associate Dean for Health Policy for the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. David B. Nash, M.D., M.B.A. said utilizing Internet technology to achieve accurate patient assessments will revolutionalize the way that healthcare is delivered & evaluated. "It empowers patients to make decisions about their own healthcare. Smart doctors will welcome this opportunity."

By keeping a patient healthNOTEBOOK™ you’ll be able to:

• Understand current patient health.
• Monitor health progress over time.
• Observe how health is changing.
• Determine which treatments are working.
• Compare a patient’s health profile with others in similar circumstances.
• Help patients better communicate their health problems to you.
• Develop a health management program.
• Improve patient quality of life.

Aren’t Clinical Measures All I Need?

Measuring a patient’s quality of life adds to your knowledge about the "whole" patient. For example, a blood pressure reading tells you whether or not the patient is in the accepted range or if a new medication is working to achieve a therapeutic goal. But, diastolic and systolic readings won’t tell you the treatment is causing depression, insomnia, anxiety, impotence, somnolence or other dysfunction. Precise and reliable outcomes questionnaires will help you assess the "whole" patient. It adds to the clinical picture.

Generally, clinical assessment is done using objective tests. Physicians measure & use standards such as those set by diagnostic labs or advocated by practice guidelines. Asking Mrs. Jones, "So, how have you been feeling lately?" doesn't elicit the same kind of quantifiable response as the results from a lab test, or even a blood pressure reading. But that is rapidly changing. Evaluating health-related quality of life can be as straightforward as a lab test.

The new, dynamic measures available through amIhealthy.com™ provide both standard questions & a score you can rely on to: assess baseline health status when taking on a new patient; to compare & monitor an individual over time; or to see the impact on quality of life of a new or changed treatment regimen.

By answering standard questions about their health & scoring their answers in real-time, your patients can take an active role in ensuring that you have all the information you need to help them live better & longer. And, the scores from their health profiles can be compared with norms for others to see whether they are above or below the average scores for their age, gender and/or condition.

• Satisfy the highest clinical standards of measurement;
• are efficient and cost effective; and
• give you a solid starting point to help diagnose & treat patients.