The HowsYourHealth family of tools are distributed for free to benefit people of all ages and circumstances. These tools are completely private…only you decide what to do with your information.
We use Research to make sure the questions and information really helps you take better care of yourself and helps you get better health care. For more than thirty years, a cooperative network of physicians, nurses, and researchers affiliated with Dartmouth Medical School has developed approaches to make care truly responsive to the needs of the population. John Wasson MD, emeritus professor at Dartmouth Medical School has overseen this work. *HowsYourHealth.org* is derived from this experience and has been shown to be effective and useful in several published research studies.(see below) Generous support for this work has been provided by The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, The W.T. Grant Foundation, The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and the Commonwealth Fund. These funding sources have had absolutely no influence on the editorial content of the web site.
Publications and Comments |
While HowsYourHealth.org and HealthConfidence.org are serving different users we perform research and development activities to continuously improve service and share our results (often through publications) with others.
This report demonstrates the value of HowsYourHealth for the betterment of both patient and population health. The following Table categorizes the research and development. NOT INCLUDED IN THE TABLE ARE THE INNUMERABLE TESTS PERFORMED BY PRACTICE, COMMUNITY OR EMPLOYER SPONSORS OF HOWSYOURHEALTH WHO CUSTOMIZE THE ASSESSMENTS TO INCLUDE QUESTIONS OF INTEREST TO THEM.
| Topic | Reference(s) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The What Matters Index |
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Highly relevant for the evaluation and management of both patient and population health. |
| Patient Reported Data for Quality and Outcome |
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An international review of HowsYourHealth and a comparison of the What Matters Index to more complicated, but popular measures. |
| General Function |
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Single item COOP/WONCA “charts” are well-suited to everyday use and adopted worldwide; they compare well to longer measures |
| Adolescent Function |
|
What matters to teens and ways to respond to their needs |
| Dialysis Patients |
|
General functional assessment is adequate for dialysis |
| Important Issues for the Elderly | Wasson JH, Stukel TA, Weiss JE, Hays RD, Jette AM, Nelson EC. A Randomized Trial Of Using Patient Self-Assessment Data To Improve Community Practices. Effective Clinical Practice 1999; 2:1-10 | Assessment of intervention on broad range of needs |
| Doctor and Patient Interaction | Magari ES, Hamel MB, Wasson JH. An Easy Way to Measure Quality of Physician-Patient Interactions. J.AMB.CARE.MGMT. 1998; 21(3): 27-33. | Patients report clinicians’ awareness of functional needs |
| Abusive relationships of women | Wasson JH, Jette AM, Anderson J, Johnson DJ, Nelson EC, Kilo CM. Routine, single-item screening to identify abusive relationships in women. J Fam Practice 2000; 49(11): 1017-1024. | A very useful screener for a veiled problem |
| Adverse Events |
|
Patient report of adverse events is valid and easy to obtain |
| Overall Care Quality |
|
A single measure of quality is similar to ratings by clinicians and patients (CAHPS) |
| Health Confidence and Collaborative Care Between Clinicians and Patients |
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Health confidence as a simple, actionable measure should be a central focus for health care; when health confidence is high patient outcomes are good and wasteful care can is avoided; at practice level information quality is the strongest driver of health confidenceè |
| Topic | Reference(s) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Randomized controlled trials | Wasson JH, Stukel TA, Weiss JE, Hays RD, Jette AM, Nelson EC. A
Randomized Trial Of Using Patient Self-Assessment Data To Improve
Community Practices. Effective Clinical Practice 1999; 2:1-10
Ahles TA, Wasson JW, Seville JL, Johnson DJ, etal. A Controlled Trial
of Methods for Managing Pain in Primary Care Patients With or Without
Co-Occurring Psychosocial Problems. Ann. of Family Med 2006; 4(3):341-350
|
Positive impacts most apparent when clinicians act on the information provided to them |
| Change in Care/Quality Improvement | Moore LG and Wasson JH. Ideal Medical Practice: Improving Efficiency,
Quality, and the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Family Practice
Management. 2007; September: 21-24.
Eads M. Virtual Office Practice. Family Practice Management. 2007; October: 20-22.
Ho L. Seven Strategies for Creating a More Efficient Practice. Family
Practice Management. 2007; September: 27-30.
Antonucci J. Helping High Need Patients Make Behavior Change. Family Practice Management. 2008; April: A6-A8
Guinn N and Moore LG. Practice Measurement: A New Way to Show the
Worth of Your Work. Family Practice Management. 2008; February: 19-22.
Wasson JH, Anders GS, Moore LG, Ho L, Nelson EC, Godfrey MM, Batalden
PB. Clinical Microsystems, Part 2. Learning from Micro Practices about
Providing Patients the Care They Want and Need. Joint Commission Journal
of Quality and Patient Safety 2008;34: 445-452
Lynn Ho, MD; John Watt Haresch, MD; Mark Nunlist, MD; Adam Schwarz,
MD; John H. Wasson, MD. Improvement of Patients’ Health Confidence: A
Comparison of 15 Primary Care Practices and a National Sample. 2013. J
Ambulatory Care Manage. Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 235–240
|
A series of articles by primary care physicians who illustrate how different components of HowsYourHealth can improve care. Includes several before-after comparisons. Not published are the ways practices use results to enhance reimbursements and attain high levels for "medical home" certification. |
| Topic | Reference(s) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Communities and Employers | Wasson JH, James C. Implementation of a web-based interaction
technology to improve the quality of a city's health care. J Amb Care
Mgmt 24: 1-12, 2001.
Luce P, Phillips J, Benjamin R, Wasson JH. Technology for Community
Health Alliances. J. Amb. Care Managem. 2004;27(4): 366-374
|
Samples from different settings. At the community, HowsYourHealth can be customized to refer patients to resources by zip code; the hospital and frail versions are used widely; problems-solving and decision-supporting tools are used widely as well. |
| Schools | Bracken AC, Hersh AL, Johnson DJ. A Computerized School-Based Health
Assessment with Rapid Feedback to Improve Adolescent Health. Clin.
Pediatrics 1998;677-683.
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| Hospital | Lepore M, Wild D, Gil H, Lattimer C, Harrison J, Woddor N and Wasson JH.
Two Useful Tools To Improve Patient Engagement and Transition from theè
Hospital. 2013. J Ambulatory Care Manage. Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 338-344.
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| Wall Street Journal Readers |
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| National Examples | Yasaitis L, Fisher ES, Mackenzie T, and Wasson JH. Health Care
Intensity is Associated with Lower HealthCare Quality by Adults.
J.AMB.CARE.MGMT. 2009; 32: 226-231
Karagas MR, Wasson JH A World Wide Web-based survey of nonmedical
tattooing in the United States. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2012
Jan;66(1):e13-4.
Wasson J. Regular Exercise is Strongly Associated with Anticipated
Success for Reducing Health Risks. 2014. J. Ambulatory Care Management;
37: 273-276
Wasson JH and Benjamin R. How’s Your Health. Free on line.
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From early design principle (immediate feedback and service as default being paramount) we test items, numbers of items, and the content of feedback and service in different settings and populations. A few illustrations are provided below. In all reports and assessments HowsYourHealth.org and HealthConfidence.org bring attention to disparities in care associated with income. (Wasson J, Benjamin R. Postscript. Health Disparity and Collaborative Care. J Ambulatory Care Manage. 2006; 29(3): 233-234).