Education of the patient with cardiac disease in the twenty-first century: an overview.

The current status of education, behavioral change, and use of technology identifies a need for professionals who can develop interactive educational programs and apply existing techniques in a cost-effective manner. The general public, including patients with cardiac disease, are sophisticated consumers of information technology and demand quality production. The challenge is to train specialists to produce educational programs, to instruct health professionals in use of these programs, to deliver appropriate messages, to teach needed skills to patients with cardiac disease, and to evaluate the outcomes. Unless incentives to restore cardiac patients to an optimal functional status with few recurrences and complications are as tangible as are incentives for treating acute cardiac illnesses, the appropriate use of technology to educate patients with heart disease is unlikely to develop. However, the trend to increased ambulatory care under prospective payment systems makes it likely that technology will be applied to improve the efficiency in maintaining health and preventing acute illness. The potential benefits to the nation are substantial.