Home >
Success Stories >
Study Outcomes
Success Stories - Study Outcomes
Testimonials |
Study Outcomes
Study 1 |
Study 2 |
Study 3 |
Study 4 |
Study 5
Study 6 |
Study 7 |
Study 8 |
Study 9 |
Asthma Abstract
SelfCareKitTM is evidence-based patient education. Health care professionals rightly insist
on evidence-based content. When that content will go on line, they know that that the
computer presentation must be consumer-tested. The next step is to realize that
instructional design, even when the presentation is on paper, must also be evidence-based.
SelfCareKit
TM has:
(1) used evidence from four fields of research for its instructional design and then
(2) collected evidence that its instructions reduce readmissions, ER use and length of stay.
Evidence for the inputs. SelfCareKit
TM relies on 4 bodies of research for materials development:
- Health Literacy. There is increasing awareness of the need for "Plain Language."
- Semiotics. Many health care professionals are not aware of the evidence as to which graphic
elements and illustration styles communicate best to low-literacy populations.
- Linguistic Pragmatics. This area of research examines the gap between what a writer
intends to say and what the reader perceives.
- Ethnography. SelfCareKitTM does original ethnographic research on patients. SelfCareKitTM researchers
visit patients in their homes to observe them attempting to carry out self care. SelfCareKitTM's
5-year database, representing thousands of hours, details patterns of misunderstanding and
difficulties patients have following typical selfcare instructions.
Evidence in the outcomes. SelfCareKit
TM has tested health care professionals' instructions against
its own evidence-based instructional design in controlled studies. The clinical content of the
Control Group's instructions is the same as the SelfCareKit
TM Group's. The only difference is the
instructional design. These studies are not surveys or focus groups of patient opinion, but actual
demonstrations of quality improvements. SelfCareKit
TM instructions produce statistically significant results:
reduced readmissions, ER visits and length of stay.
Measuring the quality of patient education by outcomes-by actual reduced utilization-is a radical new
concept in health care. Most health care professionals have believed that different approaches to
patient education could not be measured by outcomes: Hospitals exempted comparisons of patient
education methods from IRB approvals. Today, the Disease Management industry is struggling to demonstrate
that its approach to supporting self management actually reduces utilization.
The SelfCareKit
TM studies establish that it is
- possible to measure the quality of patient education by outcomes and that
- evidence-based patient education produces dramatically improved outcomes.