Finding underscores a large-scale challenge plaguing today's healthcare system

MedTera^™, an integrated marketing solutions company dedicated to improving education, promotion and communications in the healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, today announced results of a survey of more than 7,000 patients about the need for better disease management education. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed responded "Not at All" when asked if they had the information needed to manage their illnesses when they left their physicians' offices. This finding underscores a large-scale challenge plaguing today's healthcare system - the lack of adequate educational tools and applications to inform patients about proper continuous care.

“Healthcare shouldn't stop once a patient leaves a doctor's office. The debate over quality of patient care needs to focus around improving educational resources available to patients and promoting their self-management skills”

The MedTera-commissioned study surveyed an online sample of 7,028 respondents in September 2010, with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.94 percent. Many respondents have a high co-morbidity rate of more than one illness that has been diagnosed by a physician within the past six months. In addition to believing they do not have the information they need, a majority of those surveyed also felt that their physicians do not communicate with them enough about specific types of information, including:

• Where to find online resources to manage the condition: 81 percent said "Not at All"
• Information on medications and potential side effects: 54 percent said "Not at All"
• Dietary recommendations based on the condition: 53 percent said "Not at All"

"Healthcare shouldn't stop once a patient leaves a doctor's office. The debate over quality of patient care needs to focus around improving educational resources available to patients and promoting their self-management skills," said David S. Duplay, founder and president, MedTera. "With patient education comes better adherence to medication, a wellness-infused lifestyle, less re-admittance to the hospital and an overall positive impact on the healthcare system. MedTera is committed to helping solve this challenge by delivering tools doctors want to use and patients actually want to interact with - and so learn from."