This post is part of a campaign to invite feedback and ideas that will help inform the next generation of content for exhibits at the Center for Total Health.
Now that we’ve established why it is important to focus on total health and what total health may look like when implemented in a variety of ways and locations, the final question remains: How should total health be supported and promoted to health care consumers?
To answer this question, it’s helpful to look at what resources and access we each need to focus on our total health and live healthier lives. Some examples may include the following:
- Expert medicine: Medicine based on the real-life experience of caring for millions of members, not just clinical research studies of a few hundred or thousand people.
- Innovative technology: Appropriate for the individual’s ability to understand and use it, smartphones for those who can afford them or community kiosks and other solutions for those who need alternative access.
- Innovative programs: Designed to fit the individual needs of health care consumers at home, at work, while out and about or in a clinical setting. Personalized scenarios for how different individuals may receive maternity care, senior care, well-child visits, behavioral health and more.
- Telemedicine: Video visits with specialists while meeting with your primary care physician or from your home, office or while on the go – via video chat on smartphones.
In a current display at the Center:
Interactive video displays demonstrate how My Health Manager (Kaiser Permanente’s personal medical record and portal for its members) and Kaiser Permanente Health Connect (the system-wide electronic health record connecting patients with all of their care providers) demonstrate how technology and connectivity can enable better care.
One idea for an alternative display:
Exhibits could present different examples for how total health might be experienced or supported – such as using common home video game technology to conduct video visits with physicians; terminals where someone could enter data and estimate likelihood or risk for developing diabetes; or examples of the latest mobile devices to help manage their health.
What are your thoughts? How would you like to see a focus on total health supported and promoted to you and other consumers? Tell us in the comments!
