You have probably heard the term, “evidence-based medicine.” But do you really know what the term means and why it is such a big deal? Evidence-based medicine refers to any healthcare and self-care practice that seeks to apply valid evidence, accrued from the traditional scientific method to improve health outcomes for real people.
Health care providers have been largely blind to individual differences in self-management competencies. Yet, as health care has grown more complex, and the patient’s role in the care process is enlarged, this one-size-fits all approach adversely affects patient outcomes and adds to wasteful spending. It is clearly inefficient when patients are unable to follow through on treatment regimens or when they experience avoidable health crises. Yet, we continue to operate with the implicit assumption that patients can manage even the most onerous tasks and life-style changes if they are simply exhorted to do so. Only when patients are “drowning” in the deep end of the pool, is a more substantive life -line thrown to them, in the form of care management or disease management. The lifeline may be sufficient to keep them from drowning, but it may not build the capacity that enables the individual to “swim” on their own.
