Co-creation in health

Social media is breaking down the wall between the waiting room and the examining room and engaging patients in their own health care.

As costs continue to mount, Branwen Jeffreys asks how the NHS must change in the future?

The concept of stigma, denoting relations of shame, has a long ancestry and has from the earliest times been associated with deviations from the ‘normal’, including, in various times and places, deviations from normative prescriptions of acceptable states of being for self and others. This paper dwells on modern social formations and offers conceptual and theoretical pointers towards a more convincing contemporary sociology of health-related stigma. It starts with an appreciation and critique of Goffman's benchmark sensitisation and traces his influence on the personal tragedy or deviance paradigm dominant in the medical sociology from the 1970s. To allow for the development of an argument, the focus here is on specific types of disorder – principally, epilepsy and HIV – rather than the research literature as a whole.

Race, job status, education and where people live all have a direct impact on how healthy we are and how long we will live. A new report published by the United Nations’ public health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO), suggests ways governments can address these social determinants of health so that people the world over can be healthier and enjoy a better quality of life.

Gianfranco Damiani, Serena Carovillano, Andrea Poscia e Giulia Silvestrini L'Inghilterra, ideatrice e promotrice del modello Beveridge, apre le porte del suo NHS al privato.

In the long-run, health information technology (HIT) will improve the quality of health care, according to 73% of U.S. physicians. However, about the same number (7 in 10 physicians) believe that the ROI on health IT is inflated and that implementing EHRs will cost more, not less.

We help health, development and environment organizations achieve greater impact through writing, editing, design and strategic planning services.

Advancements in mHealth but what about the pace of policy?

The future of healthcare technology is mHealth. We are evolving into a mobile focused or perhaps obsessed society and how we use technology is playing a greater role in healthcare delivery. Healthcare professionals, patients, and consumers all encompass potential mHealth users.

Health Literacy is an individual’s ability to understand and act on health information. Why is this important?

•  Individuals with low health literacy have an average annual healthcare cost of $13,000
• Cost goes up, quality goes down
• The average reading level of health communications material is the 10th grade
• The reading level of 30 million Americans is the 5th grade

Who are the real victims of this war? Not really the doctors, but patients instead.

The world's top health problems are more common in men than women. But recent global funding has been skewed toward women's issues. Some health economists say more effort should go toward stopping men's risky behaviors, like smoking and drinking.

«Les gens bien portants sont des malades qui s'ignorent» - Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine (1923)

David Wright is MPH President of the Institute for Interactive Patient Care, and also serves as Chief Outcomes Officer for GetWellNetwork. Readmissions News recently published an article by David focused on how to reduce readmissions in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. In the first of a two part series, he describes how technology can be used as an effective means to achieve and sustain patient activation.