Purpose of GoutPal.net explains how this website supports the overall purpose of GoutPal. Which is “to learn how to identify your gout situation so that you can discuss this effectively with your doctor.” Because I intend the gout forums to be a place where you can clarify facts that you have read on GoutPal.com. Especially to understand which factors apply to you personally.
Then this makes it easier for you to work with your doctor to fix your gout. Because you know what questions to ask and you are able to understand your doctor’s advice.
Why GoutPal.net?
I have over 10 years experience talking in the forums to gout sufferers. So I have seen thousands of gout sufferers fail to seek their doctor’s advice. Or ignore it, because they are confused and fearful. This is a recognized problem in rheumatology. As shown by several studies similar to the example you’ve read in the Purpose of GoutPal.com.
But we achieve nothing by complaining about poor education resources for gout sufferers. Instead, I look at successful schemes where education supports the doctor-patient relationship. Then doctors can provide better treatments that patients are more likely to adhere to. Because each party understands the other.
This is certainly the case in a study of gout self-management[1]. This study of gout patients reviews key features that encourage people to stick to their uric acid treatment program. So key findings include:
seeking additional information regarding the disease and treatment from several sources, including physicians, other health care providers, patients, family members and friends, websites, and printed materials. This indicates that despite the intent of health care providers to inform and educate patients about gout and its treatment, gaps in patient’s knowledge are common. […]These patients also provided several messages for other gout patients regarding how to improve gout self-management.
Ideally, programs that provide education and monitoring should be part of every medical practice. Because once they are, I can close GoutPal as a historic relic. But in the meantime, you need GoutPal to provide the individual support that all top rheumatologists recommend.
Around the world, many doctors are trialling gout patient education schemes. One of the latest being a co-ordinated program involving doctors, nurses, and pharmacists[2].
education is critical in chronic disease self-management but it needs to be combined developing an action plan and carrying it out long-term. Patients need healthcare team input between scheduled visits. A multi-disciplinary team can divide the labor needed to assist the patient in developing an initial action plan as well as provide the monitoring and interactive continuing education needed to optimize long-term outcomes. Our findings may also be relevant in gout care settings where assembling a multi-disciplinary team is not practical, where either a pharmacist or a nurse may take on the roles that both played in our study.
In the meantime, a team comprising doctor, patient, and GoutPal, has produced many happy cases of gout recovery with GoutPal support. Because here you have the opportunity to log your test results, symptoms, and medicine changes. Then discuss those with fellow gout sufferers. So you can understand exactly what you need from your next doctor’s appointment.
Purpose of Your GoutPal.net
Because I learned how to control my gout, I want to help you control yours. So, I’ll adapt my Life Purpose to your gout:
Who Am I?
Keith Taylor, your gout friend.
What Do I Do?
Provide a forum and other support services where you can discuss personal gout problems.
Who For?
Uninformed, misinformed, or confused gout sufferers.
What do they Want?
Clarification of gout facts and explanation of which factors apply in their situation.
How do they Change?
They learn how to work with doctors to get fast effective gout control.
In a nutshell, you use GoutPal.net to clarify facts from GoutPal.com. Especially to clarify which factors affect your gout. Thus, you learn to discuss your gout effectively with your doctor. So get started now and share your questions, experiences, and opinions in the gout forum.
Leave Purpose of GoutPal.net to read more about GoutPal’s Gout Community.
Purpose of GoutPal.net References
- Singh, Jasvinder A., Ivan Herbey, Aseem Bharat, Janet E. Dinnella, Sally Pullman‐Mooar, Seth Eisen, and Nataliya Ivankova. “Gout Self‐Management in African American Veterans: A Qualitative Exploration of Challenges and Solutions From Patients’ Perspectives.” Arthritis care & research 69, no. 11 (2017): 1724-1732.
- Fields, Theodore R., Adam Rifaat, Arthur MF Yee, Dalit Ashany, Katherine Kim, Matthew Tobin, Nicole Oliva et al. “Pilot study of a multidisciplinary gout patient education and monitoring program.” In Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 601-608. Elsevier, 2017.