Managing Your Health

If and when managing your or someone else’s health challenges becomes a major concern, there are tools not previously available that can make the process easier.

Telehealth, electronic health records and email can help.

Millions of people either live too far from their doctor’s clinic, or are too feeble to travel, or both.

Telehealth is a vital tool for these patients. Why it has been politically controversial escapes me, but currently Medicare pays for telehealth appointments, which is a very good thing.

Electronic health records have been around for a while, but now they are ubiquitous and available to patients through online platforms like MyHealth.

There, your doctor or nurse practitioner can share his or her instructions with you in written form, in case you have trouble remembering what they said in your appointment — which is a common concern, especially among elderly patients.

But by far the most useful communication system for managing your health is when it is two-way. Increasingly, health providers are accepting emails from patients, answering them and initiating an open communication channel that makes the patient less dependent on waiting for that next appointment.

These changes are not only good, but long overdue. The results should include better outcomes for everyone involved.

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