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By Emily Greene
health.mil
WASHINGTON - Today’s top medical leaders are placing great emphasis on creating a culture of wellness and healthy lifestyles. A key to success is getting patients actively involved in their own health care. That’s why military health professionals are using innovative tools to connect people with vital medical and fitness news, information and assistance.
For instance, the Air Force Medical Service has harnessed the power of social media and mobile applications to promote health literacy. Air Force Col. Douglas Anderson, the director of the Commanders Action Group, Office of the Surgeon General says the AFMS has rolled out electronic tools aimed at improving patient health outcomes.
“This effort was viewed as a means to enhance implementation of various communication, outreach and electronic health initiatives and activate patients,” Anderson says.
In addition to a comprehensive patient centered medical home awareness campaign, Anderson says in 2011, AFMS communicators set up Facebook accounts and standardized website information at all military treatment facilities. These efforts, he says, have resulted in increased service and health literacy.
Virtual support groups have proven to be popular through AFMS social media outlets like Facebook, reports Lisa Torphy, a member of the AFMS communications team. Participation in this group and others like it has resulted in a fan base increase of 120 percent in the past six months. Torphy says the current weekly reach of the Facebook page now exceeds 68,039 unique users, and the potential viral reach is greater than 1.3 million Facebook users.
Air Force Maj. Laurie Migliore is the director of educational service for the Center of Excellence for Medical Multimedia, which is another patient education initiative from the Air Force Office of the Surgeon General.
“Health literacy is vital to healthy outcomes,” Migliore says. “If a patient cannot understand the directions on a prescription bottle [or] instruction sheet, a pre-op instruction or [a] piece of medical equipment, the chances of using that information accurately is dramatically reduced. Basic information like when or how to schedule an appointment, what to do in case of an emergency and how to prevent or treat a condition can become overwhelming if an individual has low functional health literacy.”
Migliore says recent studies have linked higher success rates for health outcomes and health self-management to those patients who are actively engaged and participate in their care and health care decision making.
Other strategies being used by AFMS include medical campaigns focused on subjects like diabetes prevention, blogging, live streaming of events and distribution of social media toolkits to healthcare providers and professionals.
The ultimate goal of these tools, says Anderson, is to provide one-stop shopping for approved health information with a personal touch.
He adds, “These innovations will improve patients’ quality and access to care, increase satisfaction of patients and staff, and improve population health by empowering patients to take an active role in their health and healthcare.”
| Date Taken: | 04.02.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.02.2012 14:11 |
| Story ID: | 86132 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 375 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Air Force Medical Service says new tools help activate patients, by J Snyderman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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