Using posters to teach patients about patient-controlled records

The relative of one of our employees saw this poster when in clinic the other day:

We were pleasantly surprised to hear about this, because it is something we try to teach to all our customers: the invitation to use Patients Know Best must come from a doctor or a nurse.

Missing this principle is one of the reasons all previous patient-controlled medical records efforts had failed: Google (shut down Google Health in 2011), Microsoft (selling most of its health care assets at the end of 2011), Revolution Health (shut down 2010) and the UK’s own NHS (shut down HealthSpace in 2012) are all examples.

But building on this principle is why we hire nurses to work at Patients Know Best. The nurses teach clinicians at our customer sites how to work when patients are in control of the records. In particular, we teach each clinician why it is in their personal interest to embrace this way of working with patients.

Because once they do embrace it, they then encourage patients to do so as well. Patients need this signal to engage with their medical records, and improve their own health. This encouragement is what gives them the confidence to invite all their other medical professionals to use PKB with them.

So at each of our customer sites, we provide the clinicians with templates for documents that explain the PKB way to patients. Each customer customises the template, and spreads the message locally. St Mark’s, it seems, have take this advice to a new level.