Informed decisions

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Increasingly, people expect to have much greater access to information about issues relevant to them.


Pit -couple -outsideThey also expect more and more to have their voice heard on those issues.

Healthcare is no different. Individuals want to understand their health better and will seek out information from trusted sources, from their GP to the internet to friends and family.

At the same time, there is a growing trend towards greater patient involvement in decisions about treatment and care - individuals' evaluation of the care they receive is shifting away from the quantity of interventions to the quality of outcome.

For many governments, this is a key driver towards new healthcare measures (and payment systems) based on outcomes not activity and of exploration of new funding models, such as personal budgets. For clinicians, this means looking at how better to empower patients to make more informed healthcare decisions which will deliver the outcome they want.

At Bupa, we consider this shift to be not only a reality we must respond to but a huge opportunity - to improve patient outcomes and to engage people positively in their health and wellbeing, which can also reduce unnecessary healthcare costs.

To this end, we have been involved in a wide range of initiatives to boost patient involvement in healthcare decisions - from launching new tools to help patients better understand treatment options through to pioneering health coaching services in countries where patient involvement has traditionally been limited and care largely physician-centric.

 

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