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Some hospitals see storytelling as a path to patient engagement

Massachusetts General is launching a collection of first person stories in its Paul S. Russell Museum in January that will form a SharingClinic.

In a departure from the push for health literacy, alerts, images, videos, emails and documents to improve patient engagement and raise patients’ understanding of their condition, hospitals are turning to first person accounts, according to FierceHealthcare.

Massachusetts General is launching a a story recording booth that will seek to collect first person accounts from patients of living with their condition. The SharingClinic will be part of the Paul S. Russell Museum starting in January.

It was created by Dr. Anne C. Brewster, a Massachusetts General internist who developed the nonprofit  Health Story Collaborative after years of living with multiple sclerosis. She said she was frustrated with the communication gap that the modern healthcare system seems to have with patients. She sought to create a way for patients to tell their stories to help themselves and other patients going through similar experiences.

The storytelling approach is underscored by research that  suggests it can be beneficial and not just for patients.

The Health Story Collaborative includes firsthand accounts of patients recovering from eating disorders, living with acute myeloid leukemia, recovering from West Nile Virus. It also includes first hand perspectives of spouses, partners and family members.

The article also cites New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery which collected 400 patient stories talking about their care, although it sounds more like a marketing tool than a healthcare measure.

Photo: Bigstock Photos

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