Doctors, teach your adrenal insufficiency patients well: provide them with a European Emergency Card!

Adrenal insufficiency is a life-threatening condition requiring chronic glucocorticoid replacement therapy, as well as stress adaptation to prevent adrenal crises. To increase patients' self-sustainability, education on how to tackle an adrenal crisis is crucial. All patients should carry the European Emergency Card.

The contribution of online peer-to-peer communication among patients with adrenal disease to patient-centered care.

BACKGROUND: Addison's disease and Cushing's syndrome are rare. The Dutch Adrenal Society offers an online forum for Dutch adrenal patients to meet and communicate. However, little is known about the added value such a forum has for the delivery of patient-centered care. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to analyze the purposes of online patient-to-patient forum conversations, within the context of patient-centered care. METHODS: For this study a consecutive sample of 300 questions ("threads") from the past 3.5 years was selected from the forum. The content of these patient-driven questions was analyzed based on the dimensions of patient-centeredness of the Picker Institute. This analysis was performed using ATLAS.ti. RESULTS: From the 390 questions analyzed, 80.8% (N=315) were intended to gain more information about the disease, the treatment, and to verify if other patients had similar complaints. To a much lesser extent (38/390, 9.7%), questions expressed a call for emotional support. Patients answered primarily by giving practical tips to fellow patients and to share their own experiences. CONCLUSIONS: On an online patient forum for Cushing's syndrome and Addison's disease, patients appear to primarily gain knowledge and, to a lesser extent, emotional support from their peers. This experience-based knowledge has become a very important information source. As such, patients can make a substantial contribution to the creation of patient-centered care if this knowledge is integrated into the care provided by health care professionals.

A glucocorticoid education group meeting: an effective strategy for improving self-management to prevent adrenal crisis.

OBJECTIVE: To assess self-management in patients receiving glucocorticoid replacement therapy for primary or secondary adrenal failure before and 6 months after a glucocorticoid education group meeting. METHODS: All patients with primary or secondary adrenal insufficiency, treated at the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, were invited by their endocrinologist to participate in a 3-h glucocorticoid education group meeting, consisting of a lecture about the disease and glucocorticoid doses adjustments in case of stress, followed by an instruction on how to inject hydrocortisone i.m. Finally, all participants could practise the i.m. injection and discuss their experience with (imminent) adrenal crises with other patients and the health care providers. Two weeks before the meeting and 6 months after the meeting, patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire about how they would act in six different conditions (e.g. febrile illness or vomiting). RESULTS: Of the 405 patients who were invited, 246 patients (61%) participated. At baseline the response by the participants on the questionnaire was 100% (n=246) and at follow-up 74% (n=183). At follow-up, significantly more participants (P≤0.005) gave the correct answers to how to act in different situations (e.g. self-administration of a glucocorticoid injection and phone contact in case of vomiting/diarrhoea without fever). Moreover, the use of self-management tools, such as having a 'medicine passport (travel document with information about disease and medication) (P=0.007) or SOS medallion (P=0.0007)', increased. CONCLUSION: A glucocorticoid education group meeting for patients with adrenal failure seems helpful to improve self-management and proper use of stress-related glucocorticoid dose adjustment.