Health Education Affects Your Health & Care

Care systems can be set up based on the prevalence of disease and proven preventive measures. For instance, heart disease kills about 1 million/ year, and about 1.5 million hospitalizations occur as a result. We can build on existing programs that focus on guidelines and evidence-based data for the most prevalent conditions, and implement them in our clinics. The USPSTF is dedicated to this type of service. The USPSTF recently found evidence that early detection (with bone density tests), and treatment of osteoporosis in women without symptoms reduced the risk of fractures. Globally speaking, the recent World Cancer Report by WHO has found that cancer may rise by 50% by 2020. One third of these can be prevented. That is very significant! The following table lists (British Medical Journal, March 29, 2003) the costliest conditions to treat.

The 15 costliest treatments (and number of people with diagnosis) in 1997 Heart disease $58bn (17 million) Cancer $46bn (9 million) Trauma $44bn (37 million) Mental disorders $30bn (20 million) Diabetes $20bn (10 million) Hypertension $18bn (27 million) Cerebrovascular disease $16bn (2 million) Osteoarthritis $16bn, (16 million) Pneumonia $16bn (4 million) Back problems $13bn (13 million) Kidney disease $10bn (2 million) Endocrine disorders $10bn (18 million) Skin disorders $9bn (20 million) Infectious diseases $6bn (16 million)

Alongside the USPHS is the HHS which has in place the ACHI, Association for Community Health Improvement. This group focuses on communities
networking together for better health. It is in 42 states (D.C. and Canada), and is composed of people from different areas of medicine. This is a valuable resource to use in developing health system uniformity because it is almost nationwide, at the local community level, and very diversified. HHS has 300 programs that help in "protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services". The Medicare program is the largest health insurer in the nation. In April 2003 HHS had a national
summit, "Steps to a Healthier USA: Putting Prevention First" that addressed prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles. Funds ($15 million) for “Healthy
Communities” will help communities do their part. The ODPHP works to promote disease prevention and healthy living. Their program, Healthy People 2010* is "the prevention agenda for the Nation". It outlines health objectives for the Nation.

Providing more health information is vital. TV is the most powerful, and most accessed way to get information. Almost everybody watches TV, has a TV, and talks about what is on TV (even if they say they don't watch TV you can be sure you will be asked, "Did you see on TV..."). In addition to public service announcements, more television programming on health issues can be added to the daily schedule on existing channels. Eventually Public Health TV will be available with daily medical news, and basic health information. After all, we have 24-7 dedicated channels for theology, sports, news, finance, cartoons, and music, to name a few, yet basic health programming is still in its infancy.

More basic health information should be available. Health TV channels now tend to focus on lifestyle changes (cooking, exercise, etc.), and reality shows focusing on emergencies, patient procedures, etc.. In the news media there is an occasional mention of the latest outbreak of the disease of the month, and maybe a mention of a profound medical study. This is good, but there is a need for more basic information programming that lets me know about this hypertension that I have, or the headache that won’t go away, or what doctor should I see for what I have. We need to know all the risks and complications as well as the different treatments for what we have so a more informed decision can be made. Like going on the Internet, or to a textbook, there will be a program that addresses a particular health concern. A daily health news show highlighting the latest medical developments is greatly needed. The Internet provides such information.
There are webcasts on the Internet that are becoming more accessible for professionals and the public. Some managed care providers have treatment guidelines for enrollees and doctors to view on their websites. The mantra for the 21rst century will be, "If
doctors don't educate themselves, patients will educate them".  Most people have a TV so what better place to start. In the future, computers will be in almost every home, too. With the Internet patients are able to access the same information as their doctor.

Providing educational materials that are easy to read and understand, i.e. at the lowest grade level possible, are essential, and key. This includes audio and visual learning - books, television, tapes, CDs, computer - as well as direct teaching. This is available
on the Internet with health sites just for kids like www.kidshealth.org and www.bam.gov . Health literacy systems can be of more use for distance learning technology via webcast teleconferences, and television programming. Learning in the home is effective and convenient.

Let your health home schooling begin!

*now Healthy People 2020

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

Prevention and wellness.
Transform America to a wellness society.

Wellness and prevention are missing...make them a centerpiece of healthcare reform.

Promote wellness and prevent disease.

Transition from sick care to a true health care system.

Preventing illness and staying well are as important as curing illness.


Wellness and disease prevention are as important to your health as early detection and treatment.  If we incoporate this into our healthy lifestyle agenda, we will stay on the right path to Healthy People 2020, the nation's health promotion and disease prevention program.  Wellness, health maintenance, prevention and early detection will make you healthier, wealthier, and wiser!

by J. L. Richardson, M.D., family medicine doctor and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide, a premiere health guide that helps you and your health care team take the best care of you.

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Patient Handbook Website

Health Insurance Costs

Written a year ago, this blog post is still relevant. For more posts on healthcare reform, click on in index to the right.

Health care costs are up at least 5% from last year. Health insurance is up from 6% to 40% or more! This means that health insurance company profits are up. Check the earnings. Their profit is up even with decreased net income and higher medical costs. Almost 100 million people are paying off medical debt while insurers rake in piles of profit.

Hopefully President Obama will allow exemptions from medical debt, and allow capped prices on insurance premiums without regard to pre-existing conditions. Health insurance companies should discontinue lifetime limits on health coverage. At an $100,000 lifetime coverage limit, one or two major surgeries or a chronic disease with complications your coverage could evaporate in a year or two or less.

More consumer protection is needed. Protection with lifelong health membership would be optimal. The national health plan, National Health Insurance Exchange, will likely make this a reality giving all the privilege of being insured as securely as our President and Congress.
With a premium of $1000 month, your payment for one year is $12,000. This should be enough to guarantee lifetime coverage. After all, your insurance premiums are giving insurance companies lifetime profits.

by J. lL. Richardson, MD, family medicine doctor and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.

http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/
www.twitter.com/MD4U

Medical TV: Where is the Health News Channel?

This was written three years ago, but is still relevant.

Medical information on TV is limited and stagnating. Sixty seconds on the news. Two minutes on the talk show after commercials on prescription medication. Outdated show on this channel, and outdated repeat on that channel in between the new show. Watch some on this channel then click and click to different channels to connect your medical news for today.

Remember the crawler at the bottom of the screen. Oh, you missed that there was a bird flu outbreak in Pakistan today, and that HPV vaccines will be required for teen women and men. These are the ways we learn about some of the most important news we should know. It concerns our health and public safety.

If only we had a dedicated medical TV CNN (instead of just Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s excellent show on early weekend mornings, or his occasional special). You know, like the sports channels by sport, the cartoon channels by age (and now one for the boomers!), the movie channels, government channels, and on and on. Where is the “MTV” of medical channels? Discovery Health has been carrying the TV health media for years. There should be more!

The TV box is probably the most used medium by which folks get their news and information. It is certainly a way to get information to people. The most used information source is one of the least used by the cutting edge medical field. This was noted in my research paper, “Building an American Health System”, in 2002. This is 2007, and it’s pretty much the same, maybe even less.

A medical TV channel (actually several would be optimal) would be great! A daily health news show would be a great start towards 24-7 medical TV. Envision yourself clicking to the heart channel, or to programs with content about specific diseases. You could learn more about that high blood pressure you are trying to control, and how you can monitor it at home. Topics on maintaining good health, and prevention of disease would be a click away. And if you missed a show, it would be shown again and again.

Health and medical coverage on TV is surely lacking in this consumer driven health conscious society. We can watch as much sports, cartoons, movies, news as we want, but we still have to piece together our medical news and supplement it with the written word, or health care providers’ spoken word. And radio.

Great health is true wealth. Medical TV would make us even richer.


by J.L. Richardson, MD, family medicine physician, patient advocate and caregiver, and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide,


http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/

www.twitter.com/MD4U

Medical TV: Where is the Health News Channel?

Medical information on TV is limited and stagnating. Sixty seconds on the news. Two minutes on the talk show after commercials on prescription medication. Outdated show on this channel, and outdated repeat on that channel in between the new show. Watch some on this channel then click and click to different channels to connect your medical news for today.


Remember the crawler at the bottom of the screen. Oh, you missed that there was a bird flu outbreak in Pakistan today, and that HPV vaccines will be required for teen women and men. These are the ways we learn about some of the most important news we should know. It concerns our health and public safety.

If only we had a dedicated medical TV CNN (instead of just Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s excellent show on early weekend mornings, or his occasional special). You know, like the sports channels by sport, the cartoon channels by age (and now one for the boomers!), the movie channels, government channels, and on and on. Where is the “MTV” of medical channels? Discovery Health has been carrying the TV health media for years. There should be more!


The TV box is probably the most used medium by which folks get their news and information. It is certainly a way to get information to people. The most used information source is one of the least used by the cutting edge medical field. This was noted in my research paper, “Building an American Health System”, in 2002. This is 2007, and it’s pretty much the same, maybe even less.

A medical TV channel (actually several would be optimal) would be great! A daily health news show would be a great start towards 24-7 medical TV. Envision yourself clicking to the heart channel, or to programs with content about specific diseases. You could learn more about that high blood pressure you are trying to control, and how you can monitor it at home. Topics on maintaining good health, and prevention of disease would be a click away. And if you missed a show, it would be shown again and again.


Health and medical coverage on TV is surely lacking in this consumer driven health conscious society. We can watch as much sports, cartoons, movies, news as we want, but we still have to piece together our medical news and supplement it with the written word, or health care providers’ spoken word. And radio.

Great health is true wealth. Medical TV would make us even richer.

by J.L. Richardson, MD, family medicine physician, patient advocate and caregiver, and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.
www.mypatienthandbook.com
www.blogtalkradio.com/drjfpmd (book reading by author)
www.twitter.com/drjfpmd

Health Channel

Medical information on TV is limited and stagnating. Sixty seconds on the news. Two minutes on the talk show after commercials on prescription medication. Outdated show on this channel, and outdated repeat on that channel in between the new show. Watch some on this channel then click and click to different channels to connect your medical news for today.

Remember the crawler at the bottom of the screen. Oh, you missed that there was a bird flu outbreak in Pakistan today, and that HPV vaccines will be required for teen women (what about the men?). These are the ways we learn about some of the most important news we should know. It concerns our health and public safety.

If only we had a dedicated medical TV CNN (instead of just Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s excellent show on early weekend mornings, or his occasional special). You know, like the sports channels by sport, the cartoon channels by age (and now one for the boomers!), the movie channels, government channels, and on and on. Where is the “MTV” of medical channels? Discovery Health has been carrying the TV health media for years. There should just be more!

The TV box is probably the most used medium by which folks get their news and information. It is certainly a way to get information to people. The most used information source is one of the least used by the cutting edge medical field. This was noted in my research paper, “Building an American Health System”, in 2002. This is 2009, and it’s pretty much the same, maybe even less.

A medical TV channel (actually several would be optimal) would be great! A daily health news show would be a great start towards 24-7 medical TV. Envision yourself clicking to the heart channel, or to programs with content about specific diseases. You could learn more about that high blood pressure you are trying to control, and how you can monitor it at home. Topics on maintaining good health, and prevention of disease would be a click away. And if you missed a show, it would be shown again and again. Like the regular news, but with more currency especially on weekends, and much more international.

Health and medical coverage on TV is surely lacking in this consumer driven health conscious society. We can watch as much sports, cartoons, movies, news as we want, but we still have to piece together our medical news and supplement it with the written word, or health care providers’ spoken word. And radio.

Great health is true wealth. Medical TV would make us even richer.

by J. L. Richardson, MD, author of the award winning "Patient Handbook to Medical Care".

http://mypatienthandbook.com

Health Channel

Medical information on TV is limited and stagnating. Sixty seconds on the news. Two minutes on the talk show after commercials on prescription medication. Outdated show on this channel, and outdated repeat on that channel in between the new show. Watch some on this channel then click and click to different channels to connect your medical news for today.

Remember the crawler at the bottom of the screen. Oh, you missed that there was a bird flu outbreak in Pakistan today, and that HPV vaccines will be required for teen women (what about the men?). These are the ways we learn about some of the most important news we should know. It concerns our health and public safety.

If only we had a dedicated medical TV CNN (instead of just Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s excellent show on early weekend mornings, or his occasional special). You know, like the sports channels by sport, the cartoon channels by age (and now one for the boomers!), the movie channels, government channels, and on and on. Where is the “MTV” of medical channels? Discovery Health has been carrying the TV health media for years. There should just be more!

The TV box is probably the most used medium by which folks get their news and information. It is certainly a way to get information to people. The most used information source is one of the least used by the cutting edge medical field. This was noted in my research paper, “Building an American Health System”, in 2002. This is 2007, and it’s pretty much the same, maybe even less.

A medical TV channel (actually several would be optimal) would be great! A daily health news show would be a great start towards 24-7 medical TV. Envision yourself clicking to the heart channel, or to programs with content about specific diseases. You could learn more about that high blood pressure you are trying to control, and how you can monitor it at home. Topics on maintaining good health, and prevention of disease would be a click away. And if you missed a show, it would be shown again and again.

Health and medical coverage on TV is surely lacking in this consumer driven health conscious society. We can watch as much sports, cartoons, movies, news as we want, but we still have to piece together our medical news and supplement it with the written word, or health care providers’ spoken word. And radio.

Great health is true wealth. Medical TV would make us even richer.