Do patients understand ...

Much of the research on functional health literacy looks at how well patients understand printed instructions. One group of researchers looked at the extent to which listeners understood critical concepts in spoken messages. about cancer prevention and screening. They concluded...

Another Challenge to Pa...

There are three kinds of facts: 1. The facts that don’t change, such as “we need oxygen to live.” 2. The facts that change all the time, such as the temperature outside. 3. The facts that we tend to think of as unchanging, but which actually change slowly. These slow-changing...

Do your patients share ...

Did you know that up to 20% to 25% of patients, of all ages, admit to borrowing or sharing prescription medication? Ellis and Mullan (2009) discussed medication sharing in recent study of data from Australia and the United States. They found the drugs most likely to be shared were...

Stay ahead of your pati...

Do patients come to you with the latest research in hand, asking you for specific diagnostic tests or treatments? Do you wish you heard about these things before they did? How do you provide patient education when they know more than you? Would you like to be better prepared, but...