Helping Consumers Make Smarter Health Decisions

Welcome to the "Helping Consumers Make Smarter Health Care Decisions" community!  My name is Fard Johnmar and I'm excited to
have this opportunity to work with Humana and YOU to help improve our broken healthcare system.  And, yes, it's very broken.

Before I get into my vision for this community and the overall effort, I'd like to take some time to explain who I am, why I'm qualified to moderate this community and my relationship with Humana.  I am founder of Envision Solutions, a healthcare marketing communications firm based in New York City.  Humana approached me (and by extension my company) to work with it on this initiative because I am a health communications specialist.  Over my decade-long career, I have worked with for-profit and non-profit organizations based in a diverse array of communities in the US and abroad.  In addition, I have conducted graduate-level academic work focusing on health communications and policy -- especially health reform.

I believe that the key to helping "consumers" make better healthcare decisions starts and ends with communication.  Most importantly, this involves providing people with information they can understand and use.  Achieving this will require health experts to consider a diverse array of opinions and beliefs -- from the community.  I've found that many of the solutions being proposed to help reform healthcare are developed and promoted by a select group of insiders who, while well-qualified, sometimes lack the perspective of people outside of their circle.

This is where this community comes in.  I'm hoping this will become a place for us to discuss what's needed to give all of us the tools, information and resources to use our scarce health resources wisely.  However, communities of this type can quickly become places where negative commentary outweighs the positive.  There are plenty of places online to rail against the usual suspects, including pharmaceutical and managed care companies.  We know that these organizations have a lot of power and are not very popular.  I don't want this community to become a forum for complaints.  Rather, the focus is on solutions.  What can we do now, in our communities to help people overcome the barriers they face to  using the healthcare system more efficiently.

I'd like to open the conversation by focusing on a few issues I care about deeply.  These are:

-Health Literacy:  Many Americans cannot understand the health information provided by doctors, managed care companies and others in the health industry.  If people don't comprehend what's being said to them, how can they make smarter health decisions?  I'd love to hear about ideas to help improve health literacy.
 
-Technology:  Google and other companies are developing electronic health records to streamline care and reduce costs.  How can we get these tools to be integrated into our existing health system?

-Caring For Caregivers:  As the US population ages, many of us are faced with providing long-term care to those who raised us -- our parents.  What barriers are the new caregivers facing that prevent them from optimizing their parents' care and helping them navigate the confusing healthcare system?

These are just a few of the areas I'd love to start a conversation about.  As this community evolves, I will be talking about ways Humana will be supporting the broad dissemination of ideas suggested by participants in this community.  This forum and the conversations are publicly accessible so if you write a blog, maintain a wiki or participate in a social network, feel free to get others involved.

Please feel free to leave comments and questions below.