Patient Portals and Chronic Disease Management

The following is a guest blog by Monica Stout from MedicaSoft. 
Half of all U.S. adults, roughly 117 million people, have one or more chronic health conditions. 1 in 4 people have two or more chronic conditions. As a nation, we need some help addressing the chronic disease epidemic. Many patient portals today give patients access to pieces of their health information – lab results, for example – and some will flag upcoming appointments or refill a prescription, but where are the tools and the data in a portal to actually help patients manage chronic conditions, thereby improving their overall health and wellness? Sadly, many patient portals provide a very narrow view, with few opportunities to link data to actions to results in a way that closes the loop between patients and caregivers. Without a complete view of a patient’s health measures, wellness goals, and plans of action – and the tools to manage them – it is very difficult to connect health and wellness to address the whole patient.
Chronic disease management represents one of the best opportunities for a personal health record to link both wellness and healthcare together to affect positive health outcomes. What does it take to improve and maintain wellness? First, you need patient engagement. You need motivated patients who want to do a good job of actively tracking their conditions and working toward wellness goals. How do you convince a chronically ill patient to do this? Start by offering a tool th...

Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 16, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Blogger Tags: Digital Health Healthcare Healthcare Interoperability HealthCare IT Patient Portal PHR Chronic Disease Management Medicasoft Monica Stout Patient Portals Source Type: blogs