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Surgical procedures are anxiety-producing enough for patients, not to mention all the questions that arise beforehand. For physicians, taking time to explain in enough detail to satisfy all patient questions is a time-consuming task. Now, there is an Internet tool to answer those patient questions and save surgeons loads of time.

Emmi™ (Expectation Management Medical Information), developed by Emmi Solutions, LLC, is an interactive, Web-based site used by physicians, hospitals and other healthcare-related organizations to help patients understand what to expect before, during and after surgical procedure.

Physicians recommend that patients view their procedure on Emmi and are given a sign-in and password. The site begins with a pleasant woman's voice that offers a simple anatomy lesson about the area of the body related to the upcoming procedure, such as the abdomen and intestinal areas for gastric bypass or LAP-BAND® procedures. Using clear graphics, Emmi walks the patient through the procedure step by step and gives information on how to prepare for surgery, the procedure itself and aftercare. It also discusses benefits and risks, allows patients to pause or back up, and provides a notepad for patients to jot down questions that may arise while they view the site. It can be viewed as often as the patient likes. At the end, it provides an opportunity not only to view the notepad but also to print it.

Pamela Davis, clinical coordinator for Baptist Hospital's Metabolic Surgery Center, said not only is the site a tremendous help for patients, but it's also very useful for staff.

"Our patients love it,' said Davis, who added that the site would have been very helpful to her when she had a procedure done five years ago. "Especially the way it can be shared with friends and family. Sometimes it's hard getting everyone together at the same time and place to talk about it. This way they can all log on to see it and it makes them feel more a part of everything. We also assign this to all our nursing staff. One floor of the hospital is trained to provide care for bariatric services as one of their in-service. We prescribe their viewing of this for the LAP-BAND and gastric bypass procedures. It's a good tool to use to educate people throughout the facility, as well as the patient and their friends and family."

Because of confidentiality, one patient asked not to be named but had this to say about Emmi: "All doctors should offer this. There are always things said in the doctor's office that I forget on the way home. The program refreshed my memory and was an effective way to stay informed on the procedure I was about to undergo."

Once viewed, the site automatically notifies the treating physicians and the documents are kept as a part of the informed consent process.

Victoria Sterling, JD, senior vice president and general counsel for OMS National Insurance Company, said in a testimonial, "We think this Web-based product is especially well-suited to our practitioners' patient population and are particularly interested in the interactive nature of the Emmi product. Being in the business of defending doctors in malpractice suits, we're particularly pleased with the capabilities we'll have for tracking each individual patient's responses in a permanent record for use in a later defense if needed. Clearly, we believe that Emmi can reduce risk, save medical professionals' time, and most importantly, improve levels of satisfaction among patients."

Not only does Emmi give information about the specifics of the procedure, it urges patients to be up front and detailed in giving their treating physician their healthy history, list of prior surgeries, allergies and medications they are currently taking.

"We're really excited," Davis said. "We feel so strongly about it, we have all our patients do it. If a patient doesn't have a computer, we have some in our waiting room they can use to log on. Some patients just see a sign on the wall and come in saying it's something they may be interested in and can view it in the waiting room."





January 2007

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