First, this is very, very important work.
Second, I have recommended these lists to my parents and my friends for help in making treatment decisions.
Third, this information should start showing up on Facebook and blogs and search results, but it never will at this rate.
Choosing Wisely just added more topics to its lists of “Things You Should Question.” Seventeen more specialty societies have joined the campaign and there are 3 new patient-friendly resource lists. NPR’s Shots blog counted 135 don’ts on all the lists (hint to the ABIM Foundation: check out how the don’ts are displayed here).
The problem is that the presentation of the information is deadly dull. It’s like reading a print medical journal. The page design doesn’t take advantage of any element of web publishing. There are no videos, no pictures, no what-to-read next recommendations, and based on a quick scan, no keywords in the metadata of the pages (they help Google find your pages and match them with searchers). There is a respectable stream of tweets around #ChoosingWisely. But it looks like most of those tweets are due to the “news” aspect of adding to the list, not all the great content in the lists themselves.
Also, scanning the lists requires way too many clicks. The page should be designed so that doctors and patients can quickly skim the lists and find the information most relevant to them. Think of how you can read a movie description on NetFlix by hovering over the image. You click if you want to know more, right?
Yes, these are serious decisions that merit serious deliberations, but if you don’t even get the reader in the door, he is not going to get any of the benefit of all this great info. It should be much easier for all readers to sort the information by age, condition, or treatment. Making that design change will significantly increase the chances that a reader will take the time to drill down and read more.
Choosing Wisely has partnered with Consumer Reports to get the word out, but after I recently tried to find washer/dryer reviews on that web site, it’s clear they’re not super web savvy either.
ABIM should copy the American Cancer Society’s More Birthdays campaign. How do I know about this campaign? I read several blog posts about it – on blogs that have nothing to do with cancer or even health for that matter.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
ABIM could also hit up Federated Media for a content-centric blog campaign to get this info out to influencers outside of health.
Patient advocacy groups and hospice organizations also would be great partners to get the word out about these lists. I know doctors are a big focus on this campaign, but there should be equal effort to get the word out to patients. Maybe this kind of work is happening behind the scenes and I just don’t know it. I hope so.
I’ll watch for those blog posts.
[Image of frustrated woman working on laptop from BigStock]
