PatientPilot’s mission is to educate and empower patients so they can better navigate the healthcare system. PatientPilot’s tools and guidance enable patients to be better communicators, better self-advocates, and more engaged with healthcare providers in planning and managing their healthcare. Informed and engaged patients lead to better outcomes, lower costs and higher patient satisfaction.
PatientPilot develops and distributes digital media applications that “coach” patients on what questions to ask their doctors, when to seek a second opinion, how to understand test results, how to find reliable medical information on the Internet, how to understand treatment options, and how to make medical decisions. PatientPilot also conducts patient advocate and health literacy training programs, produces videos to help patients communicate with healthcare providers, presents conferences and forums on patient empowerment, and consults to other nonprofit healthcare and patient support organizations.
PatientPilot aims to help all patients regardless of their financial status but with a particular emphasis on underserved populations such as low-income, low-health literacy patients.
The Need
We are all patients and caregivers at some point in our lives. Just about everyone has had the experience of sitting in a doctor’s office feeling apprehensive, overwhelmed by information and uncertain about what questions to ask. Most people know all too well what it feels like to walk out of the doctor’s office having forgotten something the doctor said and regretting not having asked more questions.
This is a pervasive problem that undermines public health and wellness. As the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) said in a national action plan released in 2013:
Many studies have shown that engaged patients—those who actively seek to know more about and manage their own health—are more likely than others to participate in preventive and healthy practices, self-manage their conditions, and achieve better outcomes.
“A National Action Plan To Support Consumer Engagement Via E-Health” Health Aff February 2013 32:2376-384
