Health Passports: A patient doctor communication tool

Objectives

Ruder Finn has worked with PARE (People with Arthritis/Rheumatism in Europe) Manifesto, a pan European initiative, since 2000.  At PARE’s 2006 conference, delegates representing member organisations from across Europe, identified improving communications between patients and doctors as a World Arthritis Day (WAD) project for 2007.  With very limited time for consultations, patient often find they do not have time to raise all the points they would like to discuss with their doctor.

Results

Ruder Finn worked closely with PARE to create a Health Passport for patients with arthritis/rheumatism.  The passport provided a fixed section for people with arthritis/.rheumatism to enter their medical history and a removable ‘diary section’ to fill in monthly changes to their health.  The Passport also included a selection of questions people might want to ask their doctor in a consultation and a consultation sheet allowing them to note key points to raise with their doctor during the consultation.

Ruder Finn developed a design template, copy in English and instructions for PARE member organisations (national patient groups) to adapt, translate and produce the Passports in their countries.  The Health Passport was piloted in Belgium with PARE member organisations ReumaNet (Dutch speaking) and CLAIR (French speaking), working in cooperation with rheumatologists.

The Passport was hugely successful in Belgium and has been translated and produced in a number of other countries across Europe.

The Passport can be seen on the WAD website (www.worldarthritisday.org)

The development of the Health Passport project was supported by and educational grant from Wyeth Europa and the Belgium Passports were supported by an educational grant from Wyeth Belgium,