Recently I read an article on KevinMD.com 's webpage that reviewed a Dartmouth study of how "patients" receive health care and what is the best direction to move in structuring health care.
The focus of the study was primarily comparing primary care practice, your local doc or clinic, to the larger institutions such as hospital centers that more easily provide what is currently perceived as modern and up-to-date technological health care.
The study certainly provoked many comments from health care providers, who by turns agreed or held contention with the study's methods and conclusions. [I have included a link to the article with this blog post.]
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The study initiated an exciting opportunity for me to express a whole new idea that has recently come to my attention. This new wave in thought regarding health care incorporates the concepts that birthed Lifestyle Modification Support; but takes the concept of using the Internet for resources to a whole new level.
Research studies are by nature necessarily limited in what they can quantify (to those making contention with the scope of the study and/or its conclusions). Naturally the Dartmouth study is imperfect but it does imply further studies to be made.
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Between the lines, the study omits that there are as many options for patients as their are minds to conceive the options. As we speak, forward thinking entrepreneurs are cooking up new arenas in which to put the management of health care into the hands of "the people" using social networking foundations.
We, as providers, do ourselves a disservice to limit our concepts of self/profession to the current and plainly limited caregiving modalities. I urge us to take the data gathered in these studies and integrate data into knowledge and skills for the future....if our desire and goal is truly to address the needs of our society, then we must adapt and continually grow into the contemporary as well as into the quickly approaching technological future.
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The purpose of Lifestyle Moderation Support is to provide educational links and informational resources to people seeking to begin this transformation in healthcare.
The steps that are to be taken are made by each individual as well as "we, the people;" a whole community that evolves and changes with necessity to meet the challenges of evolving society.
Our history in the nation of America began as individuals who were willing and courageous enough to take their lives into hand; to "manage" their lives; to be accountable for their well-being, health, and thereby, their prosperity. Personally, I define prosperity as abundance in all things; not as an amassing of material objects.
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Inherent in the title of Lifestyle Modification Support is the concept of abundance and balance. What? you do not perceive or comprehend that? Please, lend me your ear and eye a moment, so that you will have the option of regulating your life from your own command center with you presiding as director of your worlds.
When we begin to switch our paradigm of responsibility, we have initiated the first steps in a profound direction toward wholeness.
Why?
For a tiny moment, relax your mind and its fervently held attachments, just long enough to image yourself the way you want to be right now. Image yourself as the center of your experience; image yourself as the master of your worlds.
Though mind would tend to tell us that to be the manager of our whole lives is a heavy burden to take on; the effect that we image of personal equipoise and self-control feels light, free, even buoyant.
When one looks at what truly is necessary for contentment and wholeness, all the shiny toys that the commercials sell and all the special foods and games and vacations and parties are extraneous.
This exercise is a very simple tool often employed in psychotherapy to allow the patient to perceive the magnitude of their own creations in their most pressing dilemmas, and to allow this sense of magnitude dissolve. The method requires one to put one's attention in the current now. Once we are only dealing with the present, we can perceive the current situation and begin prioritizing steps to move into our vision of abundance.
One's Lifestyle is one's current manner of living in one's worlds. Are you tracking on specific patterns of behavior, your habits, and their effects? or are you blindly following an uninvestigated course toward your own self-destruction?
Modification is moderating one's behaviors to create and master one's reality. You choose the moderation for specific issues. This is an ongoing aspect of living an accountable lifestyle.
Support is accessing and utilizing all the resources available to one.
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Why wait for the health care system to create for us what only we can and should create? Begin now. Perceive your self in your free and peaceful balance. When you choose, or allow to have chosen for you, a primary care provider or a larger healthcare institution, remember to arrive at your appointments as the manager of your lifestyle. Remember to address the information gathering from the perspective of the decision-maker. Expand your options. Always inform your provider that you will be considering many options. And thank them for assisting you in managing your life and obtaining education for decision-making.
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Be the change you envision now.