healthcare communication Archives

Doing Better and Feeling Worse: Patients with Long-term Conditions Describe Treatment Side Effects
Patient insights

Doing Better and Feeling Worse: Patients with Long-term Conditions Describe Treatment Side Effects

Doing Better and Feeling Worse: Patients with Long-term Conditions Describe Drug Side Effects By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH We live in fortunate times; people are now described as “living with” conditions. As an article in BioMed Central Health Services Research put it: Where previous generations experienced episodes of infectious and acute disease that were often rapidly lethal because there were few effective treatments,... major changes in the epidemiological and demographic landscape have led to increasing numbers of people with chronic or long term conditions such as diabetes and asthma; living with and surviving potentially life-limiting conditions, [...]

Getting the Real Story from Patients

Getting the Real Story from Patients By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Humans evolved in a storytelling milieu where stories taught and explained the world around us. Our brains carry this legacy, research shows that the brain can store more information and retrieve it more easily when it is in story form. Narrative is easier to understand, is more engaging, and is an effective tool to communicate science to lay individuals.1,2 Personal narratives make science relatable. But mistakes made in the process of capturing a patient narrative can be cumulative. When writing native advertising (sponsored content), copy [...]

What Do Patients Wish Their Doctors Knew?

What Do Patients Wish Their Doctors Knew? For the better part of the 21st century, researchers from academia and the pharmaceutical industry have observed, recorded, and attempted to influence the physician-patient power dynamic. As one such study revealed in 2001, both physicians and patients have “power”; but differences in “in-office priorities” – physicians’ focus on efficiency and patients’ on self-advocacy – result in missed opportunities for improved health outcomes. As my colleague, Richard Tsai wrote in Embracing The Patient-Centric Culture, “The challenge for healthcare organizations, be they government or private, is to elevate the perspectives of [...]