Helping patients make sense of their medications

It is difficult for patients to manage their medications. The elderly , among many others , tend to take several medications in different doses at varying times of the day. There are often complaints of numerous side effects of these medicines, some of the complications a result of cross reactions between these medicines.

The law mandates pharmaceutical companies provide information about the medicine on its package. The purpose of these leaflets is to help patients understand their medicines , so they take them properly . But there are numerous complaints against these leaflets, for instance, tiny or cramped text, bad printing, hard to understand warning symbols, incoherent instructions, complicated language etc. 

Dr. Malpani speculates how many people even bother to read these leaflets, let alone understand them.

These leaflets are not patient-friendly. They are apparently designed to be compliant with the law alone. The attitude of pharmaceutical companies by publishing information in this manner seems to be self-protection against potential lawsuits by aggrieved patients than to actually prevent a health risk for patients. Since the leaflets are barely readable at best, a chance at patient education is lost. Thus, patients are oblivious to the side effects and complications of the drugs they are consuming. Read more about health literacy at http://blog.drmalpani.com/2012/11/how-promoting-health-literacy-can-help.html