Since communication and relationship building are at the core of everything that Mash does, here are some of our top suggestions to maximise the face-to-face time that patients have with their HCP.
Talk the talk – No two people express themselves, or their symptoms, in exactly the same way. This is complicated further by the divergence in communication styles between men and women, and by age and culture. To facilitate discussion, industry can help establish a common language between the HCP and the patient, utilising discussion aids, for example, so the HCP can better appreciate a patient’s symptoms. Patients can then be reassured that they have been a) heard and b) provided with individualised instructions on how best to manage their condition.
A picture speaks a thousand words – Help speed up diagnoses by providing tools that allow patients to express themselves in a way the doctor can access easily. Simple pictorial representations could dramatically improve identification of symptoms from both a HCP and patient perspective. They may also provide a starting point for discussion and, consequently, help to identify how much the patient understands about their condition – enabling more targeted advice from the HCP.
Be clear, be concise – Recognising what is possible within the confines of a consultation is essential to good patient-HCP communication. Overloading HCPs with recommendations on what to communicate to their patients within a 10-minute consultation may put pressure on the doctor and could overwhelm the patient. Instead, industry can help HCPs communicate by identifying the relevant key points of the condition and treatment advice. This allows both patient and HCP to be confident that the essential details have been covered effectively - and, more importantly, been understood - when the consultation is over.
Knowledge is power – The Department of Health states on its website: “more informed patients are more empowered people”. Industry can help supplement the key points discussed above by providing well written, patient-appropriate literature that also signposts to trusted and verified sources, such as patient support groups, which the HCP can provide to help counter patients’ follow-up questions post-consultation. This not only frees up HCP time during a consultation for more effective discussion, but also caters to those patients that learn visually rather than aurally, or who need additional time to process the HCP’s information; in short, those for whom a 10-minute discussion may not be constructive. HCPs can then be confident that, while they have not been able to discuss every aspect of an illness in detail with their patient, they have provided a credible starting point to help patients become more empowered to self-educate and self-manage.
Self-management and self-education are becoming increasingly important considerations as rising populations and recession put ever more pressure on global healthcare provisions. So, in addition to clear and concise communications, it is also timely to provide patients with the tools to help themselves. This, in particular, provides the pharmaceutical industry with the opportunity to offer sound, evidence-based information in an accessible format that can genuinely help facilitate and improve HCP interactions while encouraging patient empowerment.
Catriona Raleigh
Catriona Raleigh
