Care management refers to a set of patient-centered, culturally relevant comprehensive activities to assist the patients take control of their chronic health requirements and conditions. The overall goal of care management is to work for the improvement of patients’ health. To reach there, the model aims to attribute care coordination to reduce patient/’s frequency to visit the hospital and boost member engagement.
Patient engagement is the collaboration between healthcare workers and patients in the care plan. This process enables the clinicians to build stronger trust and relationships to improve the health outcomes of participants of the clinical trial.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PATIENT ACTIVATION
The participants of the clinical research study play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the same. Patients who are effective managers of their own body and mind tend to be more active in terms of healthcare. It has been shown in numerous studies that `activated’ patients have the skills, ability, and willingness to manage their health and experience better healthcare outcomes than the ones who are not active. The knowledgeable patients engage in their health and are always eager to find better ways to improve their health structure. The physicians and investigators also make better decisions to improve patient retention.
HOW CAN PATIENT ENGAGEMENT BE IMPROVED?
Personalized services provided to the patients in the pre-study procedures can encourage them to better engage during the course and motivate them to participate actively for quality results. If you don’t know about the personalized preferences of your patient, the patient engagement strategies are going to be basic. Personalized interactions with the patient curate a journey map for them that encourages an active role in the study.
Using advanced technologies like Clinical Data Management, electronic health records of patients are collected, managed, and organized to examine their behavioral patterns, demographics, and medical history. This gives an insight to the investigators about their life to judge their medical conditions and risks accordingly. Another important technological inference in the engagement strategy is the implication of a marketing automation tool that executes patient reach through emails, social media handles cost-effectively.
It is usually misinterpreted that only healthcare workers play a boosting role in engaging the members, but the physicians are equally, if not more, responsible for the frequent motivation towards the patients. They are the ones who are in direct and frequent contact with the patients and therefore, their attentive guidance and knowledge produce excellent results in the process.
CHALLENGES AHEAD OF CARE MANAGEMENT RELATING TO PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
While it has continuously been argued that the active participation of patients is directly proportional to the success rate of the clinical trial, efficient programs to support such active patients are not yet developed for urgent use. Such programs and software structures are not even considered in the primary healthcare segments.
Lack of experience in the patient engaging staff is cited as another crucial reason behind the downfall of the care management. Due to less availability of a highly trained staff, the cost of recruitment of personalized and patient-friendly investigators rises to high. Over the last decade, technological advancements have been made in the medical sector, but the programs linked to care management have been slow to develop. Also, the lack of attention to patient health in the preliminary tasks is another major reason for low participation because it’s too late to control the diet and health habits of patients when they reach the final process.
Patient engagement solutions require that the investigators educate the patients regarding the treatment and care options to improve their health. It also focuses on the involvement of patients in the policy-making and strategic decisions that the community and society make about regulation in the healthcare sector. The patients and providers together consider the conditions and treatment options and benefits and risks of the treatment.