Merck Manuals Releases Tips to Help Older Patients Improve Medical Care

KENILWORTH, N.J., Oct. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --As patients get older, the number of doctors they see and amount of office visits they have increase significantly. In fact, adults aged 65 and over visit the doctor more than twice as often as younger adults and children. Unfortunately, the increased number of doctors, visits and treatments can create communications gaps, making continuity of care a particular concern for many geriatric patients.

To help address this challenge, The Merck Manuals, one of the world's most widely used medical references since 1899, today released a video providing tips and insights to help older patients improve their medical care.

This latest resource, which is available on MerckManuals.com, features geriatrician Michael R. Wasserman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Rockport Healthcare Services. Dr. Wasserman also serves on the editorial board for the Manuals.

In his video, Continuity of Care, Dr. Wasserman discusses some of the challenges facing older patients as the number of doctors they see increases. He stresses that the primary care physician must act as the head coach of an older patient's medical team. The video also includes actions older individuals and their families can take to ensure better continuity of care with their team of physicians and healthcare professionals.

"When an older person is seeing multiple doctors and multiple specialists, they treat a problem, the patient has a side effect from the treatment or the medication, and then they see another specialist for that side effect and they treat with a new medication and so on and so forth," says Dr. Wasserman in the video. "Oftentimes, we'll see people on 10 to 15 to 20 medications for this very reason, and in my experience, we're able to reduce the medications and people feel a lot better."

Dr. Wasserman offers three proactive steps older patients should take when visiting their providers:

• Write down health priorities ? prioritize what you want to discuss and questions you want to have answered in the limited time you have with a medical professional.
• Document medications ? share a list of the medications you're on with your doctor at the beginning of your appointment.
• Share your goals ? write down your goals and the parts of your life that are most important to you so your doctor gets to know you as a person and can tailor his or her suggested treatment.

The Merck Manuals offers content and resources specifically tailored for older patients. Authored by 350 independent medical experts and written in layman's terms, the consumer version of the site contains hundreds of educational resources on managing acute or chronic health conditions for geriatric patients and their families.

Follow Merck Manuals on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates to content and resources aimed at helping older patients stay healthy and getting the most out of their relationships with their medical teams.

About The Merck Manuals

First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Merck Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the world's most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. As The Manual evolved, it continually expanded the reach and depth of its offerings to reflect the mission of providing the best medical information to a wide cross-section of users, including medical professionals and students, veterinarians and veterinary students, and consumers. In 2015, The Merck Manual kicked off Global Medical Knowledge 2020, a program to make the best current medical information accessible by up to three billion professionals and patients around the world by 2020. For access to thousands of medical topics with images, videos and a constantly expanding set of resources, visit MerckManuals.com and connect with us on social media:

For Consumers in the U.S. and its territories: Twitter and Facebook
For Professionals in the U.S. and its territories: Twitter and Facebook

About Merck

For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer's disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

SOURCE MerckManuals.com