2021
A New Way To Use Patient Information Leaflets
New patient packages contain all the information your practice and new patients need to know. They can provide treatment packages and information on how to deal with patients diagnosed with a particular disease.
Patients can take it home to read in their spare time and share their new knowledge with family members. If your practice cares for someone with a chronic disease, podcasts can be a helpful way to share information on topics that affect your patients. Seminars and lectures can help inform patients, for example by explaining the management of chronic diseases or by presenting new information from research studies in other health communities.
It is an important piece of information that can help patients outcomes and thus the ongoing pharmaceutical care. A study found that 97% of the patients surveyed had a better knowledge of drug side effects and their disease. This was due to access to patient information.
The majority of participants do not consider patient information leaflets in Australia to be patient-friendly. One focus group mentioned that there is an enormous number of potential side effects that outweigh the benefits of the drug and that patients should not take their medication without reducing the dose or consulting their GPS.
Although most participants did not have the opportunity to obtain their information during the focus group discussions, several participants admitted regretting not being able to collect information from the medical leaflets themselves. Some participants felt that informative images such as pictograms could give a visual overview of the leaflet in order to get the first impression of information and allow them to navigate the text without too much of a reading.
Electronic health records (EHRs) can help keep your practice organized and allow patients to access their health information quickly. Using an EHR provides patients with an easy way to access their records. AU patient info, references, articles, leaflets and clinical tools such as PatientInfo are kept free from commercial interests.
In recent decades, extensive literature has been developed on the use and properties of printed materials for health education and patient information sheets Although problems with legibility and usability of patient information sheets continue to be reported, their existence and availability have long been acknowledged and guidelines for health education materials have been developed. The design of medical leaflets in Australia that influence the "understanding and ability of patients to find information" should be optimised according to good design principles.
