Interactive Medical Education on the Web - A New Tool for a Safer Patient Experience

You just found out that you're a candidate for surgery, or that you have a chronic medical condition; where do you turn for information beyond what your doctor provides? 

A growing majority of people look right here to the web.  A 2007 Harris poll found that 52 percent of adults sometimes or frequently go to the Web for health information, up from 29 percent in 2001.

A few years ago an entrepreneurial surgeon sat down with an interactive game developer to talk about how they could meld their areas of expertise.  The 2002 result of that conversation was a company called Emmi Solutions. Their interactive, web-based programs are designed to help patients understand what to expect, as well as provide supplemental information about the risks, benefits and alternatives to a particular treatment or procedure.  (Demo)

That collaboration created an impact on my life, as I've spent considerable time over the past few months working with the folks from Emmi Solutions and meeting with Clinic administrators, physicians, and other hospital leaders to introduce them to Emmi's web-based programs. 

Not only has the Cleveland Clinic subscribed to these programs for our patients, our wonderful MyChart and Epic electronic medical record teams have developed an HL7 (whatever that means...) interface so that the programs talk with one another. 

I have to say that it's been fascinating to be in the right place at the right time to become a participant in the development of leading-edge healthcare technology. 

P.S.
Answer to a frequently asked question:  Expectation Management & Medical Information