By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Health care is about you being in charge of your health. It’s about you partnering and communicating with your doctor and other health care providers. Patient engagement is essential and it begins with you being an empowered and proactive patient. How can we improve communication between doctor and patient? A critical first step is to gather knowledge and ideas from all of us with a passion for improving our…
Read More...Speaking Event: Cayman Islands National Healthcare 20/20 Conference
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA I’m delighted to participate in the Cayman Islands National Healthcare 20/20 Conference, and the topic of my presentation is “The rise of digital technology for better patient engagement.” For further details you may read the Press Release (provided by the 20/20 Healthcare Conference) below. 20/20 Healthcare Conference to discuss how patients can be better informed The use of mobile devices and the internet to help provide a greater level…
Read More...Too Much Hype in the Mobile Health App World?
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA [Original post, “Too Much Hype in the Mobile Health App World?” published on The Huffington Post on 7/23/12 in the Healthy Living/Health News Section.] The Wild West of mobile health (mHealth) is taking the health care industry by storm, but “there are no rules to the game,” said Joseph C. Kvedar, M.D., founder and director at the Center for Connected Health in a recent interview. Mobile health is a…
Read More...Engage With Empathy
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Original post, “Engage with Empathy” published on The Huffington Post on 6/27/12 in the Healthy Living/Health News Section. Do you feel connected with your doctor or other health care providers? Do you partner with your providers? How important is patient engagement to you? What words do you use to define patient engagement? Do you consider yourself an empowered patient or health care consumer? What is patient engagement? Here is…
Read More...mHealth: Valuable information in PwC report, but are the findings remarkable?
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA A recent report, (PDF link) “Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth,” commissioned by PwC, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) the Economist Intelligence Unit, is well executed, however it’s important to understand the research sample for this survey. Is it possible that the results of the survey would be different if the sample was broader in terms of the types of patients questioned and the doctors and executives from payer organizations that were selected were…
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