PatientSchool.net Offers Downloadable E-book and Interactive Physician-led Webinars to Empower Patients to Partner in Their Health Care While Their Lowering Medical Costs

Columbia,MD (PRWEB) April 6, 2006

PatientSchool.net, an extensive one-of-a-kind health web portal, is offering a complimentary chapter download of its new consumer health empowerment tool, My Medical Journal. This invaluable guide teaches patients how to take an unprecedented step in partnering in their health care by equipping them with practical advice on how to develop and maintain a personal copy of important health records, which can be time-saving, cost-saving, and even life-saving in a true medical emergency.

It also teaches patients how to think like doctors think in order to optimize communication with their physicians. “We were taught in medical school that 90% of the diagnosis is in the patient’s history and the remainder is in the exam and diagnostic tests,” states Dr. Hester, board-certified internist and author of My Medical Journal. She goes on to say, “I have found that to be a conservative estimate. When a patient gives a concise, pertinent explanation of his symptoms and his past medical history, physicians can make the correct diagnosis in far less time and with far fewer (costly) tests needed. Unfortunately, patients have not been taught how to think along these lines, and this is thru no fault of their own.”

The gap in communication between physicians and patients is frequently the sole issue that hinders high-quality, cost-effective medical care. Unfortunately, in this society the patient has been left out of the equation for far too long. Now we are facing a health care crisis, the average consumer is ill-equipped to fully partner in his medical care to optimize his care, minimize medical errors, and lower his short-term (and long-term) medical costs. In addition, My Medical Journal provides helpful fill-in charts to record vital personal and family medical history, provides current national preventive medicine guidelines, an exercise log, and even a smoking cessation log.

For those who prefer even more active learning, PatientSchool.net offers live physician-led Webinars to teach the following highly-valued patient empowerment skills:

•     Maximizing health care while minimizing health costs
•     The leading causes of death in America and how to prevent them
•     Developing and maintaining a personal medical record
•     Communicating with health care professionals effectively
•     Preparing for upcoming doctor's visits
•     National preventive medicine guidelines
•     Cancer screening guidelines
•     Exercise and nutrition guidelines

The physician-directed patient skills taught through PatientSchool.net promise to empower the average American with no medical training whatsoever to become cost-conscious, health-savvy health care consumers able to partner with their doctors like never before to improve their health care and lower their health costs.

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