Infection Control is in the hands of our patients

For the Spring 2015 issue of Australian Hospital and Healthcare Bulletin we have discovered an industry-wide leaning towards involving patients in their own care, from infection control, hospital design, meal planning and through the monitoring of their own health via smart technology and wearables.
As esteemed infection prevention and control practitioner Cathryn Murphy writes in our foreword, “Whereas in the past healthcare consumers and particularly those requiring tedious infection prevention measures such as isolation, were expected to unquestioningly listen to, absorb and comply with recommendation, it is now possible for consumers to proactively and intentionally take self-initiated steps to reduce their own risk.”
People these days want to be able to track their exercise so as to improve their performance; to download the latest updates for their devices, and to gain an education online whilst working full time and raising a family and enjoying a full social life. They want to be able to have access to everything that affects their lives - and this does not end at the hospital doors.
We are not talking about ‘Dr Google’ here. To borrow a web terminology, it is about optimising the patient experience. If patients can improve their treatment through their self-tracking of a condition in the times they are away from their treating doctors or nurses (as we have seen on our website with a QUT researcher running a ‘medical selfies’ project where participants can track the development of skin rashes or even seizures via their smartphone cameras, the images of which are passed onto their treating clinician during a face-to-face consultation), we can see better outcomes for patients, clinicians and improved relationships between the parties.
There’s nothing wrong with a little self-responsibility.
Sharon Smith, Editor