PatientOS 1.0 Roadmap

PatientOS 1.0 Roadmap: "PatientOS has two years of design and implementation of a solid flexible framework on top of which a clinical information system for physician offices, clinics, hospitals, or any other healthcare facility can be built. Our target for our 1.0 release is to be the most stable and fastest growing open source healthcare information system on any platform."

The open source healthcare space is getting hot :)

DocSite Registry™

DocSite Registry™: "A simple effective solution at an affordable price

For physicians by physicians. DocSite Registry™ demonstrably improves care with minimal disruption to office workflow for a modest price. DocSite Registry is a patient-centric, all conditions registry bringing evidence-based medicine to the point of care without stifling each physician's individualized excellence.
Success one patient at a time

Physicians use the registry to manage chronic, complex and preventive health needs for individual patients or entire patient populations. DocSite Registry graphically organizes relevant clinical information from the patient record to save time during office visits, and supports proactive management of clinical conditions across all patients in the practice showing care elements that are due or out of range.
Measure and report

DocSite Registry allows you to measure and track the care of one patient, as well as populations of patients in your practice. Participate in any clinical integration, health collaborative or quality-based initiative with confidence knowing you have been managing patients using nationally recognized evidenced-based medical guidelines aligned with outcomes measures."

Practice Fusion - Practice Fusion Officially Launches

Practice Fusion - Practice Fusion Officially Launches: "Practice Fusion addresses the complexities and critical needs of today's healthcare environments by proving a revolutionary application and delivery model for physicians and patients at no cost. Practice Fusion offers an integrated, on-demand healthcare platform delivered in a software-as-a-service model that eliminates the complexities associated with licensing, implementation, integration and support usually experienced with leading enterprise software solutions. Practice Fusion dramatically reduces the cost to the practice while enabling providers to deliver the highest level of care possible to their patients."

Finally - a commercially available free or low cost EMR !

Welcome to MedApps and Telemedicine 2.0

Welcome to MedApps and Telemedicine 2.0: "MedApps™ offers a complete system designed specifically to connect people with their healthcare providers by integrating:

• FDA Cleared Devices (internal and external)
• Cell Phone (acting as a “Hub”)
• Bluetooth® (“wireless”)
• Enterprise Level Interactive Voice Response
• Intelligent Call Routing
• Nurse/Agent Awareness

The result is a truly ubiquitous healthcare solution (“Healthcare Anywhere”).

MedApps “listens” around the “Body Area Network” monitoring a patients body, providing a more robust picture of the patient’s health, and bridging the gap between patient and healthcare provider.

MedApps encourages a more active lifestyle by integrating invisibly into a patient's daily activities. Accurate, timely readings help stabilize patient conditions, providing the ability for earlier intervention and enabling a patient to control their disease, instead of the disease controlling the patient."

Avvo.com - grading lawyers

Avvo.com - grading lawyers: " Avvo is a website that rates and profiles every lawyer, so you can choose the right lawyer. Avvo delivers the information and guidance you need to help you make this important decision, even if you’ve never worked with a lawyer before.

1. We profile hundreds of thousands of attorneys, using information from state courts and bar associations, websites, and lawyers themselves.

2. We calculate each lawyer’s Avvo Rating, to help you sort through the profiles.

3. You contribute your firsthand experiences by rating attorneys that you’ve worked with."

It's just a matter of time avvo will start doing this for doctors too !

Develop SOA solutions for healthcare organizations using business-driven development

Develop SOA solutions for healthcare organizations using business-driven development: "Business-driven development is the key methodology in delivering healthcare solutions based on a Service-Oriented Architecture. To ensure the information system to be developed meets the business requirements of the organization, BDD starts by capturing requirements and analyzing business process before investing in code development. In the ambulatory care case study, we conducted interviews with all the stakeholders and documented the expectations and challenges, identified issues and opportunities."

Check out the screenshots ! Delivering healthcare is a complex process - which is why automating it is a tough task. Otherwise, you'll end up as another horror story. " A hospital I talked to two years ago indicated that as the result of its major initiative of Health Information Systems (HIS), it already had a complete HIS in place that provided an integrated information system accessible by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and administrators. One year later, when talking to an IT manager of this hospital, to my surprise, I was told that they were going to re-do the entire system because the system they put in place earlier did not support their business needs. Unfortunately, according a report by the Standish Group, if you have four IT projects going on, three of them will ultimately end up to a similar fate. Only 28 percent of software projects succeed where American companies spend annually upwards of $275 billion on about 200 thousand application software projects. Please see the Resources section for more information."

medIND: Indian Fulltext Bio-Medical Journals Indexed in IndMED

medIND: Indian Fulltext Bio-Medical Journals Indexed in IndMED: "One point resource of peer reviewed Indian biomedical literature covering full text of IndMED journals. It has been designed to provide quick and easy access through searching or browsing."

Great list of Indian medical journals available online, for people looking for peer-reviewed medical articles relating to Indian conditions !

Legal Process Outsourcing: Indian doctors reach US courts, virtually

Legal Process Outsourcing: Indian doctors reach US courts, virtually: " This is a new one for Indian talent helping US lawyers. And this time it is Indian doctors. Forget the $300/hour services being offshored, the outsourcing market is on a roll. How about seeking support from India for services that are typically between $500-$800 an hour?! St. Petersburg Times has this piece on the new use of India. Some snippets:

Sims, the Ocala lawyer, incorporates India into her law practice with a twist on the typical outsourcing model.
After a positive experience with doctors on a trip there, she started MD in a Box. For $90 an hour, the company links lawyers with Indian doctors who screen potential cases, analyze records and perform medical research. The same service with American experts costs between $500 and $800 an hour, Sims said.

The company's most powerful tool is also its most technologically advanced. Lawyers can hire an MD in a Box doctor to be present during depositions using Skype, a software program that allows the doctor to listen to the proceedings in real time. If the Indian doctors catch a defense expert making a medically suspicious claim, they quickly send literature or rebuttal questions to aid the cross-examination."

New roles for Indian doctors !

OpenSource Software - a Primer for Healthcare Leaders

OpenSource Software - a Primer for Healthcare Leaders This is an excellent guide on why open source software can help change the healthcare industry by making PHRs and EMRs affordable for everyone !

E-health: A matter of life and death

E-health: A matter of life and death: "I was standing in the security line at Dallas International airport some months ago when I was approached by a worried-looking gentleman who was carrying a large envelope with papers. He asked if I was travelling to Chennai (I was stopping over at London).

It seems that a family member on holiday in India was undergoing emergency medical surgery and the medical records were needed faster than a courier could get them there. I was struck by the irony of the situation.

Consider this: you can travel anywhere on the planet or pay for your hotel or other purchases by the swipe of a credit card, where the payee authenticates your credit limit.

In essence, your financial information can and is transmitted to wherever it is required in the bat of an eyelid. And yet, the thing that matters most to us, our health and our health records, is pretty much stuck in the Stone Age.

Your medical information, history of medical treatment, surgeries, allergies and so on are recorded on paper and all this stays where it is recorded. If this information is not made available to doctors when and where it is needed, it is pretty useless and could mean the difference between life and death."

McHealthcare - Delivering Consumer-Driven Healthcare

McHealthcare - Delivering Consumer-Driven Healthcare: "McDonald’s consumer focus offers some important lessons for the healthcare providers to ponder as they are forced to transform into more consumer-driven organisations."

SMS - A new way to tap into health info

SMS - A new way to tap into health info: "Intelecare Compliance Solutions Inc., based in New Haven, Conn., sells a service -- which companies can then provide to their employees or customers -- that sends text, e-mail or voice-mail messages reminding users to take their pills, refill prescriptions, get to appointments or check vital signs. Drug companies, insurers and large employers hoping to improve efficiency and decrease absenteeism are Intelecare's main customers, says 35-year-old Kevin Aniskovich, chief executive.

Next year, Aniskovich says, the company will start a direct-to-consumer service that for $60 a year will offer e-mail, text or voice-mail reminders about prescriptions and appointments. He says that since 'txtspk' can be confusing, the service asks users to type in their own message reminders so they will be familiar with the message when it arrives.

A company called Smile Reminder in Lehi, Utah, lets businesses such as dentists and spas automatically send text and e-mail messages to remind customers of appointments. For dieters, a company called Sensei Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla., part-owned by insurer Humana Inc., will send weight-loss advice and information to Sprint and AT&T mobile-phone users for a weekly fee starting at $5.75. The information shows up in a multimedia format, rather than as a text message."

The Expert Patient - How I lost 40 kg in 6 months - without a doctor or a gym !

Here's a first person account of how Mr Rajat changed his life !

" Today, when I look back at 2007 especially January to July, I realize that “ simple determination and basic fundamentals can enable one to achieve almost anything “. Well that’s how I lost 44kgs in 6 months. No doctors, no dieticians, no gym. This is how my story goes …….

It was Nov.,06. I was in full bloom of my glory --- 110kgs and bulging from all sides. I used to hate my mammoth size and appearance but had learnt to live with it. Never thought it was possible to come back to normal size. But the incident in the flight from Mumbai to Surat brought about a resolve in me which I never thought would happen. I took a window seat and managed to squeeze myself in. And minutes later, guess who walked in ---- none other than Mr. Shashi Ruia, Chairman of the Essar Group, where I am employed. After a few minutes of discussion on business, he spent the next half an hour to Surat explaining to me how important it was for me, my family and general quality of life that I lose weight. It was like a father talking to a son, a guru teaching his disciple rather than an employer to an employee. Man, I thought to myself, how much he cares, how concerned he is. Not many people could have spoken with the intensity and feelings and the manner in which he urged me. Believe me, it was a beginning of a new “ME”.

From that day onwards my resolve started growing and finally from 15^th Jan.,07 I started my journey on weight reduction. I scanned through the net for an ideal diet and exercise regime but the message I largely got was

The calorie intake has to be lesser than calorie output.

Fruits, boiled vegetables are good enough to provide all the nutrients.

Walking/jogging are the best form of exercises.

Yoga is also very good coupled with aerobics.

Better to break exercise in two parts – morning and evening.

So I started with vigorous walks both morning and evening. Initially I would do about 8 kms and gradually stepped it up to 20 kms ( 10 in the morning and 10 evening). Twice a week to break the monotony I would swim about 2.5 to 3 kms. Simultaneously I started reducing my diet.

My normal diet was 2 eggs in the morning with 2 slices of bread and a glass of juice. Lunch comprised rice/noodles and soup. Dinner was always heavy post 3 to 4 drinks with mouthwatering snacks. Gradually, over a month, I came down to fruits in the morning – no lunch – fruits/ boiled vegetable at night with lots of hot water through the day.

Within 15 days I could see the results. On 1^st Feb. 100kgs. And I was extremely motivated. By Valentines day 96 Kgs…… mid March 88Kgs …… end April 75Kgs and 66Kgs by end July.

There was a lot of advice coming around from various sources. Do this….. don’t do this, are you feeling weak and so on. At one point of time I got very scared even though I was feeling at the top of the world. The family physician gave me one simple advice. Listen to your body. If there is something wrong your body will tell you. Do not ignore those signals such as spin in the head, giddiness, cramps etc. I felt none.

Today I am maintaining myself between 65 and 68Kgs and feel great. If you are keen on shedding Kgs build up a resolve and go for it. If a guy like me can do it anybody can, so go ahead and do it. At any point of time you feel like talking to me please feel free to write to me on my mail address ---- rajprenik@yahoo.co.in

Best of luck,

RAJAT GUPTA

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a before and after !

Compare medicine prices in India

Compare medicine prices in India : "It is impossible for a doctor to remember the prices of all competitive brands of a given medicine. He can recall only a few at the time of writing the prescription. Here you can find the price of the same medicine from different companies. If you find a cheaper brand please go back and ask your doctor whether you could take that. This will save you money on purchase of medicines and will not require your doctor to rely upon his memory to remember prices."

Making a Killing - HMOs and the Threat to Your Health

Making a Killing - HMOs and the Threat to Your Health: " One of the most powerful indictments of the managed care industry, this scathing exposé presents case histories of those who have lost their health or their lives because an HMO denied or delayed vital treatments, tests or surgery. ... This lively probe is must reading for anyone concerned with the health of the U.S. medical system."

You can read the full book here online. Excellent examples of what you can do to protect yourself and fight for your rights !

Patient Advocate Primer: Persuade, Plan, Passion, Pin.

Patient Advocate Primer: Persuade, Plan, Passion, Pin: " To be an effective advocate for yourself or someone else, there are a host of principles you can follow and many excellent books on the methods of advocacy. "

Here is a basic primer."

The California Patient's Guide: Introduction

The California Patient's Guide: Introduction: "How do I get copies of my medical records? What should I do if my health plan denies coverage for a particular treatment? How do I file a grievance against my health care plan? And, when can I sue my HMO? Can my health care plan exclude coverage for my pre-existing condition? If I don't have insurance, what are my rights to receive emergency medical treatment? What health care programs are available to me if I cannot afford private insurance?"

Excellent advise if you find yourself getting frustrated and upset. Full of useful tips and practical tools !

HealthCareCoach.com

HealthCareCoach.com: "Getting the health care you and your family needs isn't always easy in a system that's constantly changing. HealthCareCoach.com is packed with facts and do-it-yourself tips on everything from health insurance to patient care - to help you help yourself. For over three decades, our independent, non-profit group of health law specialists has given consumers the information they need to get the best out of the system."

VA National Center for Patient Safety - Cuture Change

VA National Center for Patient Safety - Cuture Change: "The goal of a Root Cause Analysis is to find out

* What happened
* Why did it happen
* What to do to prevent it from happening again.

Root Cause Analysis is a tool for identifying prevention strategies. It is a process that is part of the effort to build a culture of safety and move beyond the culture of blame.

In Root Cause Analysis, basic and contributing causes are discovered in a process similar to diagnosis of disease - with the goal always in mind of preventing recurrence."

Italian court rules against law restricting artificial reproduction

Italian court rules against law restricting artificial reproduction: " An Italian court has barred enforcement of a legal ban on genetic testing of the human embryos to be used in in vitro fertilization. The December 23 judgment by a court in Florence came in a case brought by a couple from Milan, challenging the law's effective ban on using the in vitro process to ensure a baby of the desired sex. The court's ruling was a strike against the law regulating artificial means of reproduction, which has been challenged as overly restrictive, but was upheld by a popular vote in 2005."

Does this mean that the law finally recognises that decisions involving their own bodies and reproductive rights are best made by patients - and not by bureaucrats ?

VA National Center for Patient Safety - Triage

VA National Center for Patient Safety - Triage: "This is a set of computer screens that will help you use the questions in a systematic way and lead your team to root causes for this case."

This is a great resource for analysing medical errors - and preventing them !

PATIENT SAFETY IMPROVEMENT HANDBOOK

PATIENT SAFETY IMPROVEMENT HANDBOOK This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Handbook provides guidance for minimizing the chance of the occurrence of untoward outcomes consequent to medical care.
This is a new handbook that incorporates Root Cause Analysis, a widely understood methodology for dealing with patient safety-related issues allowing for clear and more rapid communication of information up and down the organization, thus speeding the process of safety improvement.

HealthBlog and Mobile solutions

HealthBlog and Mobile Solutions : "All of this has huge implications for the healthcare industry. I've written before about the power of Unified Communications and how commodity software will enable personalized tele-medicine and tele-health applications that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. Here at the conference there are a number of old and new companies focusing on wireless applications and services for the healthcare industry. Examples include Intelliview, TELUS, Rogers Communications, InnoTraction, Capital Health, St. Jude Medical, and Dynastream Innovations. Not attending this conference, but a growing presence in this space is HealthPhone; a company offering highly mobile data capture solutions for healthcare providers who call on assisted living centers and nursing homes. HealthPhone also has a number of health and wellness services aimed at the consumer market.

Where is all this going? In the same way that young people increasingly experience the world through social networking channels (check out the new Zune by the way), service industries are reaching for technologies that will seamlessly connect them to new virtual markets. Healthcare is no exception. In fact, the opportunities here may be even greater than those of other industries considering the vast sums of money being spent by consumers, employers, and governments on healthcare delivery and wellness. "

HealthBlog- Medical Tourism. The World is Flat

HealthBlog. Medical Tourism. The World is Flat: "These hospitals in India and Thailand are no ordinary facilities even by US standards. Most American hospital administrators would be green with envy. The all-private-room facilities look more like 5-star hotels than hospitals and sport the very latest top-of-the-line imaging devices, therapeutic modalities, and information technologies. And unlike American Hospitals, when you check in for service here you know exactly how much you'll pay upon discharge.

In many ways this would be the story of American automobile manufacturing all over again were it not for the fact that not all patients can or will go overseas for treatment. But as the world grows flatter, in much the same way that the Japanese and Koreans have transformed the auto industry, global competition is making American healthcare a target for some revolutionary changes. And contemporary IT will play a significant role in all of this by making health information, healthcare quality, and pricing totally transparent and by facilitating communication and collaboration between care teams and patients across the seven seas."

FreeMD™ Your Virtual Doctor

FreeMD™ Your Virtual Doctor This is one of the cleverest consumer health websites I have ever seen ! It allows patients to find out what the possible reasons for their symptoms could be - and when they need to go and see their doctor. Just type in any symptom ( such as wheezing) to give it a spin. It's got a very attractive and simple user interface - and combines both video and text with an artificial intelligence engine to provide a very valuable service ! It's been developed by Dr Schueler, which means it's got a trusted and reliable pedigree. Full marks !

The Society for Innovative Practice Design

The Society for Innovative Practice Design: "The Society for Innovative Practice Design brings together physicians who understand and accept the challenge of bridging the gap between the theory and the practice of consumer driven medicine. The redesign of medical practice by our member physicians has as its core a clear understanding that the physician works on behalf of the patient, not the managed care plan, the employer or the government providing the insurance coverage. Many innovative practices even create a financial firewall between themselves and third-party payers because they have found the culture of third-party payment a distraction from their primary focus on patients.

The interest of physicians in redesigning medical practice focuses on dealing with opportunities and problems that embrace both patient care and practice economics:

Growing patient demand for prevention-focused primary care services

A need to improve practice efficiency by controlling the expenses of contracting with third-party payers

A need to develop innovative financing arrangements that are patient friendly rather than dictatorial.

The reengineering of practice operations to improve patient service and convenience"

Symbols for Use in Health Care

Symbols for Use in Health Care Hablamos Juntos, an initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
was launched to eliminate language barriers and improve the quality of health care for people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Symbols and universal and can be part of a viable and dynamic system that can assist all people, regardless of their reading skill level, to feel more comfortable and confident within a
health care facility.

Pharmacist-Provided Disease Management Programs: Evidence of Success

Pharmacist-Provided Disease Management Programs: Evidence of Success Implementing a team approach to care improves diabetes management. Increasingly, pharmacists are members of these teams,
providing such services as education, screening, and medication monitoring as they work collaboratively with physician colleagues to help patients meet their goals.

The Role for Pharmacists

Pharmacists can get involved in the care of patients who have or are at risk for developing diabetes; some activities include:
Identifying patients at risk for Type II diabetes due to known risk factors
Conducting blood glucose screening of patients with risk factors
Offering point-of-dispensing services including reminders for proper preventive care and glucose testing
Disease state management
Providing patient education

Strategies to Improve Communication Between Pharmacy Staff and Patients: Training Program for Pharmacy Staff

Strategies to Improve Communication Between Pharmacy Staff and Patients: Training Program for Pharmacy Staff: " This training program is designed to introduce pharmacists to the problem of low health literacy in patient populations and to identify the implications of this problem for the delivery of health care services. The program also explains techniques that pharmacy staff members can use to improve communication with patients who may have limited health literacy skills."

IVF Ethics Questionnaire

IVF Ethics Questionnaire: " The objective of this questionnaire is to examine views regarding assisted reproductive technology and ongoing advances in the field of in vitro fertilization (IVF). We are interested in the opinions of scientists and physicians, previous and current patients, and anyone else who is interested in IVF. We intend to present the collected data at major fertility conferences around the world and online at IVF.net."

Very thought-provoking questions !

6 Tips for Making Your Patient Education Pieces Easier to Understand

6 Tips for Making Your Patient Education Pieces Easier to Understand : "

1. What do you want the patient to do as a result of your document? Make sure that everything in the document supports that goal.
2. Use short simple statements that are jargon-free. If you must use jargon, include a dictionary of those terms at the end of the document.
3. If you are using a question and answer format, phrase the questions exactly as your patients do.
4. Prune your text. Take out unnecessary words, even paragraphs. Does everything in the text support the goal of the document?
5. Browse through Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care for a wonderful illustration of writing that stood the test of time for clarity.
6. Ask some patients to proofread a draft for you and indicate where they got stuck in the document. Where did they have to stop and re-read? What questions did they have as they went along, and were those questions answered? What do the patients think they were supposed to do as a result of reading the document?"

Susan Keane Baker: Presenter and Speaker on Service Quality for Health Care Organizations

ReminderMed - Home

ReminderMed - Home: "Surveys show 75% of people don't take their prescriptions as directed. When asked, half said they forgot to take their medication. Non-compliance results in 125,000 deaths each year in the US. Don't be one of them. Life being what it is, there are lots of reasons why people forget to take their medications. So having someone around that'll remind you when it's time to take that pill is a good thing. And if you have a mobile phone, then ReminderMed™ is that good thing. In fact it could save your life."

Stress, sex and infertility

We are now seeing many "infertile" couples who are having difficulty conceiving because they are too stressed or too busy to have sex ! This is the price couples often pay for living in a huge metropolis like Bombay !

Having a sexual problem is bad enough - and the added stress of the involunatary " infertility " makes it even worse. This often becomes a negative vicious cycle, which is hard to break.

The traditional response was to go to a sexologist or psychiatrist for counselling - with expectedly poor results, because talking does not make the problem go away !
The next step was to forget about the sex altogether and just focus on having a baby by going to a gynecologist for an artificial insemination. Often, this can be very hard on the ego - and it's not easy to make time to go to a doctor's clinic for these super-busy couples. The result is often that the baby-making gets postponed year after year - often until it's too late !

We are very pleased to sell a Comprehensive DIY Fertility Treatment Kit online . The kit costs only Rs 4400 ( about US $ 100 only) and includes the following:

1. An Ovulation Prediction Test Kit, to help you determine your "fertile time"

2. Self-Insemination Kit, to help you insert the sperm in the vagina

3. A Penile Vibratory Stimulator, to help you ejaculate

4. Non-Toxic Condoms, to collect the semen

We feel this simple kit will help many more Urban Stressed Infertile Couples to have their own babies ! It's much easier than going to a doctor - and much less expensive and more fun !

Treating India's ailing healthcare system by championing patient education

Most of us would agree that though Indian doctors are amongst the best in the world, the Indian healthcare system is sick. Private healthcare can be world-class; but this is expensive and unaffordable for the vast majority. While the government does provide free healthcare, a lot of it is of very poor quality. Both doctors and patients are unhappy, as evidenced by the increasing violence against doctors and patients.

One reason for this sad state of affairs is that the entire medical system is built around the doctor. This is crazy! Healthcare is a service industry, and should be designed around the patient. The best way of doing this would be empowering patients with information, so they know how to get the best medical care, in partnership with their doctor.

Unfortunately, patient education seems to be no one's baby, as a result of which it is a relatively neglected area. This is a shame, because the potential cost-benefit ratio is huge! For the investment of a small amount of money, it's possible to improve the healthcare millions of patients receive. Patients represent healthcare's largest resource - and they have been untapped so far. If we can make intelligent use of patients, and help them to make use of their intelligence, everyone will benefit!

An investment in patient education is one of the most cost-effective ways of improving healthcare in India. Well-informed patients will take much better care of themselves, and information therapy will help to make medical care much more patient-centric.

This can be a major opportunity for pharmacists. So far, chemists in India have been treated as "baniyas", who only sell medicines. This is partly because most of them have only focused on making money, by selling products. They do not provide any value addition. However, the traditional small chemist shop is now under threat, as the large retail healthcare chains enter India. Just like the small "mom and pop" grocery stores are closing down because Indians prefer to shop in large malls, the large pharmacy chains will wipe out the small chemist, because of their financial muscle and ability to provide better service. The only way the small chemist can counter this threat is by providing better service to his patients. Patients are thirsty for information, but their doctors are often too busy to talk to them. If pharmacists (who are also professionals and expert in their field) can take the time and trouble to educate their patients, their customers will remain faithful to them!

The good news is that there is a lot of patient educational material which is now freely available. It's easy to adapt this – and to translate this into local languages. This investment in patient education will actually help pharmacists to increase their business!

Healthwise Handbook - now in India !

What can you do to manage your back ache at home ?
Is there a safe and simple home remedy for your nagging cough ?
Is your child's fever serious ? When should you take him to your doctor ?

Your husband has chest pain. Should you panic ? Is this heartburn ? Or a heart-attack ?
Solutions to the daily health problems we all encounter every day can start with this comprehensive self-care guide from Healthwise.

While health care crises of cost, quality, and staffing continue to make headlines, Healthwise has been helping people transform their role from passive recipients of health care to active, engaged partners.

Since 1975, people continue to use and trust the family of Healthwise Handbook to help them:
Do more for themselves.
Ask for the care they need.
Say “no” to the care they don’t need.
Used by employers, hospitals, and health plans, the family of Healthwise self-care handbooks are proven to help improve self-care, reduce unnecessary doctor and emergency department visits, and increase consumer loyalty. They are the "aspirin" in the information formulary, because they offer solutions to many common health problems for very little cost. They help a family make basic decisions about:
Prevention, home treatment, and when to call a health professional.
How to make wise decisions about tests, medications, and surgeries.
How to make lifestyle choices to improve health.

People turn to the Handbook about seven times a year. One client reported saving an estimated $34.5 million in unnecessary doctor and ER visits in just 30 months with the Healthwise Handbook . Over 30 million copes of the Healthwise Handbook have been sold worldwide !

The unique feature of this new edition is Go-to-Web icons which direct you to the online Healthwise Knowledgebase for more in-depth information, combining the convenience of print with the depth and currency of the Internet.

Covers more than 200 common health problems.
Provides help with topics ranging from ear infections to diabetes with clear, easy-to-understand information and full-color illustrations.
Go-to-Web icons connect to the online Healthwise Knowledgebase.

You can order this invaluable book online now ! This is the authorised low-cost high-quality Indian reprint of the latest US edition. We will ship to Indian addresses only . It's only Rs 395 ( including the cost of couriering to your address in India). It's a great gift to give to your family members and employees too !



We ship to Indian addresses only !

Photonovels for patient education

Photonovels for patient education : "Photonovels (or fotonovelas) are like comic books, but they are compiled using photographs and captions and they are a highly visual and creative form of getting a message across to wide ranging audiences. Based on the revolutionary Brazilian educator Paulo Friere’s concepts of participatory education, the process of creating the photonovel allows learners to define the content and outcome of their own learning by creating a story line about an important topic or theme and then acting it out; using photography as a means to express a story and message.
Essentially, the genre of the photonovel challenges a more traditional educational approach because it has the learner as the main subject in the pedagogical process."

These are a great way of teaching patients , since they combine story telling with pictures - and they are so easy to produce with today's technology !