Health Literacy Redefined through Patient Engagement Framework

Abstract

Today, Internet is competing with traditional Medicine. People go online to seek information for their wellbeing, look up treatment options or to find patients like them. Thus, patients' engagement in the healthcare system is becoming inevitable. A Pew recent study showed that 72% of U.S. adults have searched online for health information in the past year and 35% went online to diagnose a condition (Fox & Duggan, 2013). This has the potential to reshape patient-physician relationship and eventually the health care delivery at large. The government, recognizing the emerging role of patients, has launched an initiative that foster patient engagement, the "Patient Engagement Framework", where patients are invited to a new era of health care where they become partners instead of "patients." The Patient Engagement Framework (PEF) provides an excellent approach for healthcare providers to gradually engage patients using e-health resources and thus improve outcomes in terms of quality, safety and costs while meeting Meaningful Use criteria.