Patient Overwhelm, It’s As Real As Fear!

Finishing out another week with much on my mind. We are in the 8th week of building Swellter and every day I am staying focused on the these themes: Ethics, Patient Education, and Sharing of Data. I reviewed a peer reviewed publication, dissected really, on “Informed Consent and Patient Overwhelm” How Could Commercial Terms of Use and Privacy Policies Undermine Informed Consent in the Age of Mobile Health? | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org).

The word CANCER alone, creates immediate overwhelm. So much so, that all a patient hears is the word CANCER and they immediately think DEATH. The patients life is immediately threatened and they go into survival mode. The emotional burden related to an illness, such as cancer, suggests that even the most experienced individual (molecular scientist who understands whole genome sequencing) may not have the capacity to to absorb enough information to provide “informed consent”.

As we build Swellter’s ‘patient immersion’ application, this understanding is imperative. We must take into account all people’s capacity and provide the dynamic application that will meet the patient where they are at that moment in time. Education, resources, circle of support and appropriate consent.

#patientsfirst #consentmatters #educaitoniskey #healthcaredata