HIMSS14: New gallery highlights engaged patient strategies

ORLANDO--The Connected Patient Learning Gallery, a new element in the exhibit hall this year, is the result of requests from HIMSS members who asked for one place to showcase innovative health IT products and services that address various aspects of electronically engaging providers and patients as well as ways to integrate these products for patient care.

HIMSS members said “create a space where we can truly connect with patients using IT tools,” said Mary Griskewitz, senior director for health information systems.

The gallery consists of a series of kiosks focusing on four themes: health management, wellness social and behavioral, financial health and home health and a theatre where a long list of speakers are giving talks on a wide range of connected patient topics.

Ann Furey, RN, MBA, director of patient education at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, discussed the patient engagement challenge in the gallery. Numerous studies, she said, have found that patient engagement can reduce length of stay, reduce cost per patient, reduce adverse events, reduce operating costs, improve employee retention and more desirable results.

However, only one-third of people consider themselves engaged in such behavior. While 40 percent of Americans believe they can actively participate in their healthcare, that means the majority do not believe that is so.

Fostering patient engagement begins with technology, Furey said, but even with technology, many patients either choose not to engage or are not able. “Offering a patient engagement tool does not guarantee use of that tool.”

Before patients can engage with a tool, they need to engage with their provider, said Furey. “Many clinicians overestimate the health literacy of their patients.” Clinicians need to make sure they don’t widen the gap for patients who already experience barriers to increased patient engagement, she warned. Increased health literacy, however, supports shared decision-making, she said.

Successful patient engagement strategies improve care processes while leveraging technology. “Make sure your tools help patients solve problems,” she said. Clinicians also should ask their patients what they need and “design tools in concert with patients rather than for patients.”