Health on the net, not only physicians.A tool for patient empowerment

Prof. Giuseppe Nappi

WHAT’S EMPOWERMENT (EMP)?

• EMP is all about the acquisition of new abilities and functions.

• In the healthcare setting, EMP refers to the enhanced ability of “empowered patients” to understand and manage their own disease.

• First introduced in the early 1970s, on the wave of the 1968 drive for equality and emancipation, it remained for a long time a utopian ideal of redistribution of power and knowledge.

• In recent years, EMP has actually become the philosophy underlying planned healthcare reforms in the Western world.(WHO, 2004 - EU strategy, 2007-2013).

The EMP concept has recently undergone a considerable evolution

• The failure of the “technophilic model” of modern medicine, which has led to patient dissatisfaction.

• The concept, driven by today’s consumer-oriented society, of the “patient as a consumer”.

• The adfirmation of the information society and the growth of INTERNET.

The popularity of EMP is due to at least 3 socio-cultural factors:

Humanity vs technologyWhat is necessary to change the

healthcare system ?

0 20 40 60

%

TechnologyTrustSafetyMoneyEfficiencyHumanityQuality

Censis-fbm 2007. A survey in EU countries

The quality of the consultation

0 20 40 60 80 100

Doctors spend less time with patients than 15 years ago

Doctors are hurried

Visit is too short

Doctors do not give enough information

% US patients

% US patients

Yankelowicz Monitor 2001-USA

Headaches are an example of the failure of the technophilic model of medicine

• The tendency to ignore the Whole (PERSON) in favour of the PartPart (HEAD) generates, in headache patients, frustration and a desire to contribute to the management of their own health

• What patients need is empathy and careful attention to their disease experience, access to care and trained physicians.

• What they get is a well-marketed painkiller or a hurried consultation with a physician who, failing to make an accurate diagnosis, treats only the symptom. What is important in the event of

illness ?

to be informed

to find a therapy

Censis-fbm 2007. A survey in EU countries

Searching for health information online is the second most common internet activity in Western countries

The growth of the Information Society and Internet has made it possible to offer knowledge, education, support, and better communication between all those interested in health, all in a convenient, anonymous, multimedia and interactive manner.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Doctors

Internet

Other sources

2008-2009

2005

2002-2003

Internet is the first source of informationabout health, more than doctors

The online revolutionof healthcare systems

Pew Internet 2009

Through an alliance of technology and humanity, physicians and patients can improve health

The experience of COMOESTAS marks an important turning point