AHRQ Launches Initiative to Encourage Better Communication Between Clinicians and Patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced a new initiative with the Ad Council to encourage clinicians and patients to engage in open communication to ensure safer care and better outcomes.

AHRQ has long supported patients getting more involved in their health care, and this effort builds on previous public education campaigns with the Ad Council that encouraged patients to ask questions. In the new campaign, clinicians are reminded that a “simple question can reveal as much medical information as a medical test.”

The campaign also includes a series of videos featuring actual patients and clinicians who discuss why asking questions and sharing information is so important. Other elements of the campaign include an interactive tool that lets patients create a personalized list of questions based on their health condition; a new brochure that helps patients be more prepared before, during and after their appointment; and upcoming ads about the campaign for clinicians that will appear in a variety of print and online journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and others.

Select for more information on the new initiative.

Source: AHRQ News Release