Patient Education Saves Lives

Aug. 17, 2015 – a day that one woman will never forget –  the day she was told she had Stage 2 Breast Cancer. Rewind a few weeks. Brandi was getting ready for her day. That morning she decided to look at the self-breast exam shower hanger she had received from her practice about the importance of routine self-breast exams.

In the weeks to follow, she would learn that she would be one of 2.8 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S.  When Brandi got the news that she had Stage 2 Breast Cancer, a million things went through her mind. Am I going to live? What about my family? All of my animals? Will I lose my job? The future was unknown and scary.

But she was determined to have a positive attitude and surrounded herself with a strong family support network and a team of doctors who laid out a coordinated treatment and education plan. And it was that treatment plan that she credits with being cancer-free today.

Her team of doctors worked together to create a coordinated treatment and care plan that she would follow for the next year. This treatment plan was in the form of a printed patient treatment packet that included her diagnosis, treatment schedule, procedures, medications, and preventative education such as diet, and exercise. She turned to this packet for her comfort and education, not the Internet. She says the packet reinforced the confidence she felt with her providers. She found the printed materials to be very professional and much easier to access and follow than trying to log-in into her patient portal for information.

Brandi credits being cancer-free today largely in part to the power of a coordinated team approach and her treatment and educational collateral.  

See more on what practices can be doing to promote women's health.

1. patient education
2. proactive healthcare
3. women's health