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Health & Fitness

Empathy and technology changing health care quality

National Healthcare Quality Week is October 20-26

A do-it-yourself healthcare revolution is underway. Go to the mobile app store and you can shop thousands of health related applications for your smartphone and tablet, including calorie counters, weight trackers, virtual trainers and meditation guides.

Juxtaposed against this exponential growth in health technology reliance comes an increased awareness by consumers and health professionals of the innate power of empathy – person to person - and its application in feeling good physically and mentally.  It’s an intriguing dynamic: faith in a software gadget and trust in the natural quality of compassion both used to boost one’s well-being.

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An estimated 44 million health apps were downloaded in the past year. And everyone is in on it, including health professionals.  One study reports that 70% of doctors with a smartphone have downloaded anywhere from 26 to over 50 apps so far and use 29 of them on a monthly basis.  And it’s not just for their personal use. Doctors are prescribing apps for their patients too.

Increased use of health apps coincides with a growing number of people going to the internet for health information.  According to the latest research from the 2013 Pew Internet & American Life Project, 72% of internet users have looked for health information online within the past year. 

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The impact of health Googling and smartphone doctoring remains unclear.  Not all information available on the web is reliable or useable to the average Joe.  Meanwhile, there is concern over the fact that some health apps don’t work.  Is anyone surprised?

Coinciding with all the tech novelty is another groundswell of sorts: the growing influence empathy plays in healthcare and its reported upshot on wellbeing. It’s the real deal and a growing priority as surveys indicate patients want and demand more of a doctor’s attention, expressed in additional time with the patient and concerted listening to his needs. 

Journalist, Nathaneal Johnson, writes in a piece for the February 2013 edition of Wired Magazine about the “care effect”.  He has been studying research results focusing on medical and alternative medicine and the placebo effect.  He sees a correlation between the empathy of a practitioner and the reduction of symptoms in a patient.

“Whether we acknowledge it or not,” Johnson writes, “we all yearn for care when we suffer. When we can’t get genuine caring, we seek out the medical version: spendy and sometimes even counterproductive treatments.”  

To stop the problem he suggests we “stop thinking of care as just another word for treatment and instead accept it as a separate, legitimate part of medicine to be studied and delivered.”

Empathy of course is not new to healthcare. But, its actual impact on wellness may have been underappreciated in our focus on developing the latest, greatest technologies to fix or mitigate health problems.  Nurses have exhibited the caring quality since the beginning of the profession. My first recollection of how important it was for people to care for the sick or hurt (other than mom and dad) was the Bible account of the Good Samaritan, the man who went out of his way to help someone in distress. His caring impulse - turning his compassion into action - was a lifesaver for the unfortunate victim.

Health facilities like the Cleveland Clinic and other hospitals are noticing the benefits of an empathetic mentality. Delos M. Cosgrove MD, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President, writes in a post that the clinic has gone from a doctor-centered organization to a patient-centered structure.  He says, “Yes we do teach empathy. We’ve made it part of our culture. There’s still a long way to go. But we’re on our way.”  Obviously he knows it will have an impact on patient outcomes and satisfaction. 

Where health care transformation is headed is anybody’s guess. The trend of consumers taking action on their own behalf to better their health outcomes looks like a positive development.  Valuing and incorporating empathy and understanding in the drive to better health is a low tech, high touch app we can all get behind.

 

 Steven Salt is a writer and blogger about health, spirituality and thought.  He is a Christian Science practitioner, curious about everything.  You can follow him on Twitter @SaltSeasoned

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