Healthy Living The Whole-Person Integrated-Care (Wpic) Wellness Solution: Business Office 6

In the showtime v parts of this serial on the Whole-Person Integrated-Care (WPIC) Wellness Solution, I discussed how particular personality characteristics -- i.e., one's cognitions (thoughts), emotions, knowledge, together with coping strategies -- decide whether or non people accept expert aid of their health. On 1 halt of the spectrum are the self-motivated "Activists" who are eager to make together with keep first-class health. On the other halt are the "Ignorer/Deniers," who, for a myriad of reasons, strongly together with consistently resist self-managing their health.

I straight off laid out to response the question: What's necessary for people to alter the way they think, experience together with human activeness inward a way that promotes salubrious living?

I assert that AWARENESS is the house to start. It's obvious that people possess got footling incentive to alter if they are unaware that they possess got wellness problems, risks, or are managing chronic weather condition poorly. Whether due to ignorance or self-deception, the showtime thing these people postulate is greater awareness of their wellness status together with in all probability future. Becoming aware of their wellness problems, risks together with pitiable self-management tends to give rising to fear. This fearfulness is based on their belief that they volition experience pain, teach disabled, or die. For some, such fearfulness a motivator. For others, the fearfulness leads to denial, then it's wise for them to "reframe" the province of affairs inward price of "joy of life" rather than "fear of death," as I discussed inward an before post. Nevertheless, awareness is essential.

Things that tin promote self-awareness are other people, media, together with information technology. These people may live sick-care professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses together with therapists); well-care coaches together with counselors; solid unit of measurement together with friends; together with fifty-fifty "virtual acquaintances" through Internet-based social networking (see Web 2.0). Media include spider web sites, TV, movies, newspapers, books, etc. Information technology includes wellness information systems, such equally personal wellness records (PHRs) together with online wellness information repositories.

In this post, I'm going to focus on the expert together with bad of wellness information technology for consumers since in that location is slap-up ground well-nigh their usefulness. See, for example, technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_330594.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology">this recent article inward Business Week about Google together with Microsoft's Internet-based products for electronic healthcare information storage together with access, together with the Robert Woods Johnson blog for their Project HealthDesign PHR evolution initiative.

I content that nosotros are inward the "Stone Age" of wellness information technology. Current twenty-four hr catamenia products are non really useful to the typical consumer, together with could live much to a greater extent than useful to professionals. That's because the greatest value information is not obtained past times exactly having a house to shop personal wellness data. Instead, value comes from using these information to aid consumers together with their healthcare professionals forbid physical together with mental wellness problems, process shrewd illnesses, together with self-manage chronic conditions.

So, what well-nigh search Internet engines such equally Google? Well, they're non of slap-up value either since alone sixteen percentage of online consumers notice what they were looking for since search engines tend to focus on breadth rather than on content quality, which agency they unremarkably furnish an overwhelming number of generic "hits" that are oft of questionable validity. This is specially truthful for searches on wellness topics such equally choice medicine, herbal together with nutritional supplements, prescription drugs, affliction cures, together with nutrition. In fact, lxx percentage of scientific studies demo that character of online wellness information is a major problem.[1]

Things possess got been improving, however, alongside spider web sites such equally Helia Health, Organized Wisdom, , Revolution Health, together with WebMD. The employment is that they all focus on providing full general rather than personalized information. This agency people must scan through pages of information together with links, the vast bulk of which possess got null to produce alongside their needs. And when they lastly navigate to where relevant information is located, it tends to live generic, non specific to each individual, which tin atomic number 82 to information overload, knowledge underload, together with inaccuracies.

What's needed is an easy, low-cost way for information from wellness aid providers together with consumers, no affair where they are stored, to live transformed into useful information. This information should non alone increment people's awareness of their electrical flow wellness status together with risks through comprehensive holistic assessments, but also furnish targeted personalized information that increases their knowledge together with agreement well-nigh the most cost-effective ways to bargain alongside troubling health-related issues. These issues may include such things equally coping alongside a stressful life situation, changing unhealthy lifestyles, adhering to one's programme of care, making valid diagnosis, together with deciding wisely well-nigh which handling selection together with insurance programme to choose. As I discussed inward a previous post, these capabilities move way beyond information storage together with access together with come inward into the realm of personalized, holistic (mind-body-spirit) decision-support together with self-help assistance. Today's PHRs are really young regarding these types of capabilities.

I've long been recommending the creation of disruptive (radical, discontinuous) technologies that are able to accomplish the lofty goals I described above. By way of total disclosure, I've been developing such a system, called the Personal Health Profiler™, for over 2 decades. It is a major divergence from the kinds of PHRs together with spider web sites inward exercise today inward that it promotes rapid together with to a greater extent than consummate agreement of a person's:

• Current physiological, psychological together with mind-body functioning together with risks
  
• Wellness interventions together with self-management plans
  
• Sick-care treatments
  
• Changes inward wellness status (trends over time)
  
• Clinical outcomes together with costs of aid received.

This information is presented inward a personal wellness profile together with yields amend (deeper together with broader) agreement of a person's problems together with needs, thereby improving diagnostic together with treatment/intervention decisions. It comes from analyses of detailed information well-nigh the relationships betwixt one's:

• Internal factors--including problematic physical signs together with symptoms, illnesses, emotions, together with cognitions (thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, "self-schemas," attributions & appraisals, expectations, memories, etc.), together with knowledge & understanding.
  
• Behaviors--including diet, exercise, alcohol together with heart use, risky activities, sleep, mobility, etc.
  
• External influences/causes--including stressful interpersonal relationships, stressful together with unhealthy physical (e.g., work, living) environments, economical pressures, etc. on the 1 hand, together with supportive weather condition that promote expert wellness on the other hand.
  
• Medications together with abnormal lab essay results --to position possible interactions (e.g., how surely drugs existence taken may live causing one's white blood jail mobile telephone count to driblet together with interfering alongside one's sleep).
  
• Mind together with body-- such equally medication side-effects together with physical illnesses that acquaint equally mental wellness problems, equally good equally physical symptoms that may live due to (or exacerbated by) stress.

In addition, this next-generation application provides these essential functionalities:

• "Pushes" targeted information to consumers together with professionals to fill upwardly knowledge gaps together with increment understanding, instead of requiring that the information live "pulled" past times them. This agency particular "findability;" that is, navigating to together with accessing relevant information is a breeze compared to the complex together with oft convoluted procedure required to obtain together with filter desired information from typical spider web portals together with search engines
  
• Identifies telephone substitution stressful/distressing life issues together with wellness risks, which aid focus wellness-counseling efforts.
  
• Identifies how a person's underlying beliefs (cognitions) together with related emotions foster or hinder salubrious behaviors together with wellbeing, which also aid focus counseling efforts together with helps interruption through resistance together with denial.
  
• Delivers warnings together with alerts essential to effective prevention.
  
• Delivers ongoing feedback to the consumers together with professionals equally to their progress, then whatsoever necessary adjustments to the wellness programme tin live made efficiently together with expert continuity of aid tin live maintained.
  
• Uses a structured, personalized coping & problem-solving methodology that helps a individual accomplish positive results equally speedily equally possible past times targeting the most problematic situations showtime together with applying a proven method for resolving them.
  
• Supports well-care/sick-care integration.
  
• Continually evolves using flexible software modules, information sets together with algorithms that are all transparent together with easily modifiable.
  
• Accommodates whatsoever electrical flow together with hereafter data together with technology standards
  
• Continually feeds a knowledge base of operations alongside de-identified handling together with outcomes information to back upwardly enquiry efforts.

These capabilities non alone increment consumer awareness, but they cutting the fourth dimension the wellness professionals possess got to pass trying to agreement a person's problems, needs, together with cognitive-emotional blocks, which speeds the creation together with improves the accuracy of their aid plans. And the targeted information, self-help tools, warnings & alerts, structured coping & problem-solving methods, together with continuous knowledge base of operations feeds offering a cost-effective way to aid improve outcomes, including amend health, wellbeing together with overall character of life, increased productivity, together with workplace safety.

Note that such a paradigm-busting disruptive technology postulate non brand conventional technologies obsolete since they tin piece of work together.

In subsequent posts, I'll explicate how the Personal Health Profiler™ industrial plant together with offering an chance for collaboration inward its continued evolution.

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[1] "Health Information Search Engines Emerge; Growing Consumer Demand for Health Information Increases Need for Better Quality, More Personalized Searches, Says Expert at 11th World Congress on Internet inward Medicine." Internet Wire (Oct 18, 2006).

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