Portraits of resilience: How patients and caregivers cope through the COVID pandemic

Portraits of Resilience: How Patients and Caregivers Cope through the COVID Pandemic By Richard Tsai The word “storytelling” invokes a pleasant image of listeners around a campfire, listeners from any era and any culture. It could, however, just as accurately evoke an image of brain chemistry that creates direct experience and even changes behavior: I originally discussed this concept in an earlier post, “Why Storytelling Builds Brands.”1 Research shows that people remember stories better than mere facts and that the brain can store more information and retrieve it more easily when it is in story form.2 Storytelling [...]

How has the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted Chronically Ill Patients? Patient Reported Outcomes

How has the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted Chronically Ill Patients? Patient Reported Outcomes By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Research in health and medicine has largely used quantitative methods. Using mixed methods, combining qualitative research with quantitative, is still relatively new. As the COVID-19 pandemic moved the world home and online, our team of qualitative researchers1 (while respecting member privacy) observed and documented themes within the online communication of chronically ill patients on Inspire. Inspire fielded a quantitative survey to document the impact. Telehealth Appointments In May the team observed and documented comments about telehealth appointments. They found patients [...]