2017

Providing “Just-in-Time” Preventive Care Advice

Oliver Frank, Nigel Stocks and Anton Knieriemen The Annals of Family Medicine May 2017, 15 (3) 276; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2066

The published report can be viewed at

Available From www.annfammed.org

THE INNOVATION

The problem that we are trying to solve is the low uptake of preventive care advice. Unfortunately, many opportunities for family physicians and practice nurses to provide preventive care are missed,1 and reminders that are e-mailed or texted to patients, advertised on posters, or presented to clinicians on screen are often ineffective. Patients have the strongest interest in receiving preventive care but may not know what preventive care they need, when and if such care was last performed, what the result was, or when it is due next.2

Our innovation provides individualized preventive care information to patients when they are waiting to see their health professional so they can act upon it there and then. It uses information about patients’ risk factors, medical history, and past preventive care to prioritize what they should receive now or in the near future.