Based on the comments we received, last Friday’s observations about the public’s apparent awareness gap when it comes to making use of healthcare information struck a chord with a number of readers.
But while the problem seems clear, how policymakers should proceed is less so.
So in the interest of trying to unpack this issue a little bit further, we thought we’d post a new poll question in the column to the right.
But first a little background.
As we noted a few weeks back, HHS has hired a PR firm to conduct a public education campaign concerning the emerging role of EHRs in healthcare delivery. But what should be the primary focus of this campaign?
In reflecting further upon last week’s post, it seems to us that there are two different subjects at hand. One concerns ongoing technological developments, while the other concerns changing the way patients approach their doctors in the name of enabling the patients to exercise more precise and better informed control over their healthcare decisions.
So where should HHS tell the PR folks to begin their “educating”, on the technological advances, or on the new options patients have available because of those technological advances?
Obviously, the two subjects are connected at the hip, but given the fact that most people are probably not going to spend a lot of time studying the issue, any broad-based campaign is going to have to think in terms of a straightforward message that it wants the people to take away.
So, let’s put the question this way: What should be the primary focus of HHS’ new PR campaign, the advances in HIT, or the ways new HIT can give patients more control over their healthcare decisions?
If you can’t winnow your response down to one click or another, please feel free to wax further in the comment section.
Jeff Rowe blogs daily at Priming the Pump.
