This book is more than a journal & more than a personal health record… it has a CD of master medical forms and logs that enable the user to computerize OR print and fill in by hand to create a customized health record notebook to meet their personal medical needs.  In addition, the book:

• Explains the importance of becoming an active participant in health care – whether a patient or caregiver.
• Helps the reader gain a new way to think about and manage complex health care needs.
• Includes stories and statistics throughout to help the reader understand the prevalence of medical errors, where and how errors occur and how to prevent medical errors and misdiagnosis.
• Provides a mechanism (over 40 unique medical forms & logs) to capture past, current, and future health-related information for quick and easy access in any circumstance.
• Provides step-by-step instructions for use of each medical form or log and the  chronic disease management system as a whole.
• Shows how to track subtle symptoms, become an investigator and help with symptom diagnosis.
• Shows how to research medical conditions, medications, and more.
• Shows how to use the information gained from research and records to aid in diagnosis and decision-making.
• Teaches effective patient doctor communication that helps healthcare providers think and consider alternatives.
• Provides suggestions to help make visible the connections between illnesses, family medical history, past and current conditions, medication side effects, and new symptoms.
• Provides critical questions to ask when facing new treatments, procedures, surgery and more…
• Recommends or tells why getting copies of all medical test results is important.
• Examines storytelling as a key communication tool and explains how to tell a complete, clear, and concise story from gathered medical information for effective and efficient communication during time-limited medical appointments.
• Emphasizes being a partner or how to find a doctor who will be a partner.
• Tells how to manage and get the most from every medical appointment.
• Includes guidelines for medication management at home and in the hospital.
• Provides guidelines for managing hospitalization.
• Explains the importance of and what being or having a patient advocate means, both on a regular basis and when hospitalized.

Page Last Updated February 22, 2011