During both the 2008 and 2010 elections, the issue of reforming the American healthcare system was the focus of overwhelming amounts of misinformation and disinformation.
Remember the email about Senior Death Panels? It explained that the healthcare reform bill would allow Medicare to save money by refusing to pay for lifesaving treatment for older Americans. Of course, it wasn’t true.
Both inflammatory statements were horribly upsetting! But it wasn’t a huge leap to figure out who wanted us to believe them.
Now primary season is here again, and some candidates continue to focus on repealing the Affordable Care Act (healthcare reform). Whether or not you believe healthcare reform should be the law of the land, you owe it to yourself, and those you influence, to separate facts from fiction.
If someone shares “facts” with you that seem inflammatory, upsetting or don’t make sense, then there may be something askew. It’s possible they are true. Or, they may be only partially true, subjective interpretations of the truth, or even out-and-out lies.
Three websites provide neutral, objective analyses of political statements for our review. The best way to determine the veracity of information about healthcare reform, or any other political statements, is to scrutinize them at one, two or all three sites.
One site is the Pulitzer Prize winning Politifact.com. Its “Truth-o-Meter” scores statements on a range from True, to Flip-Flop, to Pants-on-Fire, along with supporting documentation for how the score was determined.
Factcheck.org is provided by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. One section focuses specifically on email rumors. Another section examines statements made by candidates and their high-profile supporters to establish their accuracy.
Finally, Snopes.com is a great resource, too. While it originally examined only urban legends, in recent years it has expanded into political claims as well.
If you see, hear or read a statement from any organization or individual during the election season or any other time, be sure to review it carefully before you share it with someone else. You don’t want to foolishly believe things that aren’t true, nor do you want to share misinformation or disinformation with others. Using one of these statement-auditing websites will help you sort out the real facts.
Here is more information about reviewing email claims:
Recently a series of videos appeared on a doctor education website, attempting to teach doctors how to deal with difficult patients. One of the videos was entitled, “The Patient Who Knows Too Much.”
That video sparked a heated debate among empowered patients and professionals. Can patients possibly know TOO much about their medical challenges and needs?
My opinion on this controversy might surprise you.
I don’t think the real question is whether patients can know too much. In fact, I think most of our doctors prefer we understand our health challenges and the steps needed to manage or get past them.
Instead, I think the real problem is how we patients approach our doctors with what we have learned, too often putting stock in misinformation. We arrive in our doctors’ offices with a fistful of computer print outs – information we’ve gleaned from our web searches that may, or may not, be appropriate to our conditions. It’s not that we know too much. It’s that we are curious about points the doctor believes to be wrong or irrelevant.
When the doctor finds us in the exam room with that stack of printed pages, whether or not he realizes it, he may become defensive. He may even be insulted. He has spent years getting an education and amassing experience. Before him sits a patient who thinks she is knowledgeable because she spent an hour on the Internet.
Further, it’s not that he believes his patient knows too much. It’s that appointment times are short, and he knows she will have a litany of questions about her findings, many of which do not apply to her diagnosis or symptoms, and some of which are false information.
But we empowered patients do have questions! We constantly find information we want to discuss. So what should we do instead?
Begin by making sure the information you find is credible and reliable. Here are some guidelines: http://bit.ly/CredibleHealthInfo. When you find possibly useful information you would like to discuss with your doctor, prepare some notes and questions to take to your next appointment. Then leave the print-outs at home.
During your appointment, ask, “Doctor, what do you know about X?” You’ll be asking for his expertise, not putting him on the defensive.
Patients cannot possibly know too much. But they can certainly come across as if they do. Don’t let that approach come between you and your doctor.
When last I wrote, I’d been catching up after a whirlwind Fall travel season. And here I find myself catching up after another crazy six weeks…
I don’t just bow out completely, even if it seems so. I’m blogging in other places, like About.com and the AdvoConnection blog, plus I have been promoting my new marketing book, and building three new websites that haven’t even made a debut yet!
So it occurred to me that that’s what I should be doing here at the Every Patient’s Advocate blog is keeping track of all the activities that help me help you. And so it shall be.
I think you’ll find I’ve all but stood on my head!
In these past few weeks, among other things:
…….
My new book has come out: The Health Advocate’s Marketing Handbook. It’s written specifically for anyone who works in healthcare in a non-traditional career (anywhere from patients’ advocates to acupuncturists, from massage therapists, to counselors, case managers, navigators and more). I’ve learned that most of these folks are marvelous practitioners, but aren’t confident about marketing themselves.
If you work in healthcare, helping others improve their health in whatever way – this book can help you – I promise! Learn more about The Health Advocate’s Marketing Handbook.
An Advocate by Your Side takes a look at private patient advocacy and how hiring a patient advocate can be the smartest move an empowered patient will make.
Be a Tattletale! tells you how to report problems with your healthcare that don’t add up to a lawsuit.
Trust Your Gut to Make Medical Decisions talks about the role of intuition in your decision-making.
Plus I’ve written untold blog posts that have sparked everything from outrage – to big yawns. Among the most inciteful (notice how that word is spelled! – it was intentional):
When it comes to TV and video, Al Roker provides one of my favorite quotations:
“They say the camera adds 10 pounds. OK. So I figure I must be standing in front of 10 cameras.”
Oh, yes, Al. I know how you feel….
However — I’ve decided to come out of my video-avoidance closet to share the following with you all.
First — my excitement at the invitation a week ago to appear on MSNBC to speak to a problem that I actually cited a few years ago – that July is the worst month of the year to be hospitalized. Why? Watch and see!
So that’s the first one. But if I’m going to jump in to the world of video, I might as well do it with both feet. Many of you know that I am brought in to speak at various conferences and meetings across the US and Canada. I enjoy speaking! So in my attempts to do even more of it, I’m told I need to have a professional video made. So, yes, I finally bit that bullet, too, and have uploaded the online version of the opening here.
It’s not like I’ve never done TV before – I have done local TV on a number of occasions. And broadcast isn’t the problem – ferheavensake, I have hosted a radio show for 4+ years! But video, in general, has just always been a step I’ve avoided.
This column first appeared
