New Issue About Health, Tune Out
or Worry?
It seems that wherever we turn we see or hear new issues about
health…whether it’s a focus on diseases that will get
us, or the cost of medicine or health insurance, medical procedures/devices
that have failed or warnings about Medicare, we either tune it out
or end up worrying about it. This is what you said!
Karen Berg
President, CommCore Strategies, Inc.
kberg@ccico.com
 In
my years as both a patient and communications trainer, I’ve
come to appreciate how the interaction between patient and healthcare
provider has evolved for many into what may be considered an adversarial
relationship. The reason, of course, is the Internet and its easy
access to complex medical information never before available to
the average person. As a result, the tables have turned: today’s
patient may be better informed about new procedures, new drugs and
new medical theories than her well-trained but very overworked physician.
As a result, many patients find themselves in an unproductive exchange
of information to determine who knows more.
From the patient’s perspective, the question has become:
How can I trust my physician when I think I know more than she?
In turn, her physician is thinking: How can I maintain control when
my patient thinks she knows more than I about her condition? The
answer is clear: the new physician-patient relationship must be
interactive and collaborative rather than didactic. This means physicians
have to look at patients when they interact (so many physicians
look down at a chart—or input information into a computerized
file —when "speaking" with a patient so the patient
becomes defensive); they have to engage the patient in a discussion
so treatment is arrived at together. Patients must understand that
the information they find on the Web may be inaccurate or inappropriate
for their particular case, so the key is to share and ask (not tell)
your physician about information you’ve obtained.
I’ve seen it happen time and again: When patients and their
healthcare professional enter into a non-threatening, collaborative
communication, compliance is enhanced and, subsequently, patient
outcomes improve.
Debra Weiner
Director, Program Development
American Society of Pain Educators
dw@paineducators.org
 The
most important issue in women’s healthcare today is how to
sift through the plethora of information that is made available
to us on a daily basis. Those of us who work in the healthcare industry
are poised to scan daily onslaughts of e-alerts, academic newsletters
and professional journals —to say nothing of the experts (and
their varying opinions) whom we work with on a daily basis.
Although I personally have access to cutting edge information,
I am just as interested in the ubiquitous headlines I find gracing
every issue of Women’s World at the supermarket. I am prone
to reading Understand the Chemicals that Make You Fat and Lose 20
lbs in Three Weeks! along with the latest issue of People magazine
as I wait patiently in line. As I enter “mid-life,”
I find myself compelled to compare “natural” remedies
for estrogen deprivation to the more mainstream approach of HRT.
I’ve read the studies conducted on Black Cohash and soy protein.
I also have found that most Asian languages do not have a term for
“hot flash,” because their women don’t seem to
experience this unpleasant occurrence as they approach menopause.
Then there’s the more interventional side of things with acupuncture,
cranial sacral work and Rolfing®. Several years ago, I signed
up for 12 Rolfing sessions, hoping the kneading of knotty body parts
would usher in a past life experience a la Shirley MacLaine. I never
actually remembered having peeled eggplants in Phoenicia, but I
did emerge with better posture and broader shoulders.
Knowledge is indeed power, but it is also a mixed blessing. When
Lucy Ricardo had indigestion or her big toe ached, she couldn’t
run to the Internet to read about gout and how prolonged swelling
can affect joint health. Nor could she read about Barrett’s
Esophagus and how chronic indigestion can be a warning of this dreadful
and often fatal condition. The marriage of media and information
technology have overburdened our mental storage capacities, and
with this comes the responsibility of selectively accessing the
right file for the right moment. Can my best friend with the thyroid
nodule in good conscience put off getting a fine-needle aspiration,
knowing that Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist is dying of
thyroid cancer? In the good old days, Lucy and Ethel lived in the
moment and wouldn’t have been distracted by this excess of
information. Their famous trip to Hollywood would never have been
postponed for a mammography or Barium Swallow, and perhaps there
is something to be said for that.
So, where does this leave us in terms of how we deal with our healthcare?
I’m not sure exactly, but I’m trying to read more fiction
and poetry these days and only watch the evening news once rather
than running my former PBS, CNN, and MSNBC marathon. Less is more
or, rather, a little less might confer more peace of mind as we
attend to our body, mind and spirit.
Julie Kampf
President, JBK Associates, Inc.
jkampf@jbkassociates.net
 Perhaps
the biggest health concern women face is finding time to take care
of their own health. Although gatekeepers of the health of their
families, many women are too busy or don’t have the financial
resources to allocate to their own care. Today’s women are
often too busy with their own families; caring for aging parents;
working outside the home; driving kids to soccer and Scout meetings;
and just trying to keep their heads above water. Annual check ups,
mammograms, and pap smears often fall by the wayside. And when appointments
are finally made, they often are changed several times, so the semi-annual
cleaning at the dentist becomes an annual or even a biennial event.
In my role as executive recruiter in the healthcare industry, I
see many women carve out time for the gym, vacations and sports
and also have overheard many rescheduling conversations. While work-life
balance is important, it must include time for a little preventive
medicine. Clearly, the importance of these visits is early detection
for early treatment. Because if we’re not healthy, we won't
be able to continue to care for our families or our aging parents.
Gloria Friedrike
Gloriafeldt04@aol.com
 My
sister is a diabetic with various related health problems. Recently,
she went to the hospital for what she thought would be a laparoscopic
procedure. Turned out, they had to do major surgery. She was in
the hospital for three days, and it would have been better had she
stayed longer, because she lives alone in a city where she has no
family and could not afford home nursing care. They tried to send
her home the second day, but she was in excruciating pain and could
not get out of bed on her own. In countries with universal health
care, she could have gone to a convalescent center, less expensive
than either a hospital or home nursing care, until she could care
for herself. The stress-reduction alone would have hastened her
recovery and she’d be back at work much sooner.
Even so, my sister is fortunate. She HAS health insurance—41
million Americans do not (17% of women and 20% of men). Plus, one-fourth
of insured women say they postpone or go without care because they
can’t afford to pay for what their insurance doesn’t
cover. The net result is that far too many women do not get the
preventive care they need to stay healthy or to diagnose illness
in early, more curable stages. The net result is that businesses
and individual taxpayers bear the financial burden in the form of
overuse of emergency services, disability costs, skyrocketing health
insurance premiums, and lost workplace productivity. And I haven’t
even touched on the diminished quality
of life.
During my 30 years with Planned Parenthood Federation of America
(formerly president), I heard many heart-rending stories of women
who could not have afforded a pap smear without subsidized care,
40-year old women who had never had a gyn exam because they lacked
insurance, women whose breast cancers were found during “free”
exams. One injustice was that fewer than 1/3 of indemnity plans
covered birth control, something we were successful in changing
in 22 states, and many low-income women still must choose between
paying for this month’s pills or this month’s bills.
And why should access to such basic and inexpensive preventive healthcare
be a political battle?
Indeed, I think the biggest health challenge facing women is politics:
public policies that do not properly address health care as a basic
need and ideological politicians who have failed to grapple with
the realty that our current hodgepodge system actually ends up giving
us all hodgepodge care at astronomical prices. It’s a political
problem that requires a political solution.
The lessons learned by reproductive healthcare providers over the
years apply to all healthcare today. It’s 85 years since Margaret
Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic; Today, we must each
participate actively in the political process to ensure that women
have access to the entire range of health care services that now
exists but for which access is denied to so many.
 The
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