What is the Patient Health Engagement Model?

The Patient Health Engagement Model (PHE Model) is an internationally validated and published psychological engagement model (Graffigna, Barello et al., 2014) that allows to diagnose and study the experience of active engagement of patients in its prevention and treatment pathway.

The uniqueness of this model – now widely adopted in scientific research and clinical practice at national and international level – is that it allows to capture the emotional and motivational dimensions that underlie the “non-engagement” of patients and, consequently, to be able to customize interventions (i.e. communicative, educational, psychological…) aimed at supporting the attitudinal and behavioural change of patients in the direction of greater Patient Engagement.

The PHE-Model is the first scientifically validated model of psychological assessment of patient engagement.
The model underpins initiatives to assess and promote patient engagement in chronicity and prevention (i.e. development of digital health applications, PROMs and PREMs, patient support programs).

The Patient Health Engagement Scale (PHE-S®) is a scientifically validated instrument that allows us to study the Patient Health Engagement Model position experienced by the patient at a given time.

Simple and immediate, thanks to a scientific algorithm, it allows the patient and the clinician to understand the patient’s experience and level of engagement and to direct personalized initiatives to promote active involvement. The scale has a registered trademark and it is possible to request a license to use it.

Why is it important to use PHE-S®?

The level of patient engagement is an indispensable parameter for modern Health Systems as it allows to:

• Identify the risk of non-adherence to therapeutic prescriptions
• Communicate effectively with patients
• Personalize educational and motivational counselling tools
• Designing digital applications that are acceptable to patients

Based on the PHE Model, PHE in Action proposes a streamlined but systematic intervention protocol articulated on exercises and educational devices validated by the scientific literature.

The protocol envisages training for the individual patient, divided into face-to-face meetings and individual remote work:

• 2 meetings at one-month intervals with a Health Care Professional (adequately trained)

• in the interval between the two meetings: individual patient activities (based on standardized tools and exercises) for engagement development