ABU DHABI // The UAE is ready for a healthcare model that empowers patients to play an active role, a survey suggests.
Indeed, patient participation is critical to sustaining and evolving healthcare systems, according to 92 per cent of the healthcare professionals polled on Tuesday at a forum in Abu Dhabi.
About 80 international and local senior professionals from Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Healthcare City and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi took part in the survey conducted by Gulf Intelligence, a Dubai-based public relations agency.
The UAE’s nascent healthcare system and its use of new technologies such as the national ID card system made it easier for patients to take part in their own health care than in other countries, said Sean Evers, the firm’s managing partner.
He said the UAE was also not burdened by long-standing healthcare practices.
Getting patients to participate in their health care includes encouraging them to seek preventative care, adhering to healthy lifestyles, making treatment plans, and getting access to their medical data.
Statistics suggest that patients who take part in making decisions about their health care tend to have higher recovery rates, according to Mr Evers.
The head of paediatric haematology and oncology at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City said healthcare institutions should share their experiences in engaging patients with one another.
“Parent engagement, in the case of children, and also the child’s engagement are really essential and important,” said Dr Azzam Al Zoebie, who has worked in the UAE for 10 years.
“When the family or the parents are involved or engaged in treatment decisions … of course the outcome will be better.”
As part of patient care, his department has a family support group and a cancer-survival programme for children that helps them return to school after treatment.
The growing trend of dialogues between healthcare providers and families have helped encourage parents to seek medical care for their children in the UAE rather than abroad, which was often the case when he first arrived in the country, according to Dr Al Zoebie.
“I felt like that engagement and interaction helped us to reach our goals,” he said. “They [the families] feel more comfortable.”
Former child patients who are now high-schoolers have been volunteering for the Heroes Club, an activities programme Dr Al Zoebie’s department set up for children diagnosed with cancer.
It has been a way for the former patients to help their juniors and to provide their ideas to the department.
“Our programme is with the whole community,” said Dr Al Zoebie. “The more engagement that we have, the better the outcome will be.”
Michael Reagin, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s chief information officer, said technology had a major role in empowering patients and optimising healthcare costs.
According to the survey, more than half of the respondents said involving patients in decision-making for their healthcare was the most important aspect of patient engagement.
Twenty-five per cent said patients’ abilities to view their medical records and exchange electronic messages with clinicians was the most important, while 22 per cent said providing patients access to educational content was of greatest importance.
Conversely, patients’ unwillingness or inability to play an active role in their health care was the top problem for 43 per cent of the respondents.
Thirty-three per cent, however, nominated a lack of financial incentive programmes or reimbursement reform, while nearly a quarter of respondents said disparate electronic medical-records systems were their top concern.
lcarroll@thenational.ae
