Medssenger Team
When a patient is consulted for back pain or headache, it is likely that they are prescribed medication and a referral for MRI imaging or neuroimaging. These conditions can easily be attributed to minor issues, result of bad posture, stress, or some lifestyle issue; yet recently there has been an increase in overmedicalization for various conditions. For instance, even though published guidelines by Choosing Wisely, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine, advises against neuroimaging for simple headaches, a study showed that neuroimaging due to headaches contributes to nearly $1 billion in annual costs, which is increasing over time. Such trend has brought issues with financial costs, as these procedures are costly and often unnecessarily exposing patients to radiation.
Why are patients often diagnosed or given prescriptions for unnecessary treatment? When patients visit the doctor with a concern, doctors often overdiagnose symptoms as their medical perspective may overestimate ordinary ailments, leading to unnecessary tests and treatments. In addition, there exists lack of communication and failure to understand the patient as a whole. For example, information about past anxiety or some other factors, which may be the underlying cause of patient’s concern, are often overlooked and therefore not taken into account in the diagnosis.
The fear of overmedicalization emerged through Dartmouth research findings of little correlation between higher spending and high quality of care. This led to the wide belief that nearly 30% of healthcare dollars are wasted. We are experiencing an epidemic of unnecessary care, where overly aggressive care leads to nearly 30,000 deaths among Medicare recipients alone each year and unnecessary interventions cost US healthcare $250 billion to $800 billion annually.
There is a consensus that improvements to doctor-patient relationships will decrease the uncertainty surrounding the decision of a patient’s treatment. Good doctor-patient communication is the key to understanding the patient, providing an accurate diagnosis, and preventing possible errors or unnecessary care. At Messenger, we wholeheartedly agree: our mission is centered on the patient and facilitating an effective doctor-patient relationship through our application. Patients are engaged in the process through real-time coordination, and are able to communicate with their entire care team anywhere at any time. Doctors will have access to all of their relevant information, and be able to have better understanding of the patient to take actions effectively. Medssenger lends the human touch, using its patent-pending technology to bring meaningful communication to the doctor-patient relationship for better outcome.