Arming Patients With Information

(CBS 5) Six months ago, Norma Ramirez's 7-year-old daughter Cindy suffered a serious asthma attack.

"She ended up in the hospital really ill," explains Norma. "Her breathing was really low, her oxygen was really bad."

Cindy got sick so fast, the family didn't realize what was happening until it was almost too late.

Norma says, "It really scared me. So I don't want to go through that again."

Now hopefully she never will, because a friend gave her a dvd called "Learning to Live Well With Asthma." The whole family settled in to watch.

"It's so simple to understand," says Norma. "I like the way the doctors explain things."

Norma's video is the work of North Bay producers Lea Bergen and Michael Yonchenko. Together, they founded a non-profit to help bring important health information, via dvd and the internet, to families free of charge.

"I'm giving it away because people shouldn't have to pay for the absolute best health care information," Michael says. "To have to charge people money to give them the best information that they need regarding their health - it's just not right!"

Michael was already an award-winning television producer when he teamed up with wife Lea, a writer, to create "Direct Health Media" to provide that information in creative dvd's, in both English and Spanish.

"We don't use actors," says Lea. "We believe that patients telling their own stories, and families telling their own stories, are what's really important and what people really understand."

They back that up with the latest medical information from a team of experts in each subject, from multiple sclerosis to asthma to post-traumatic stress disorder. They're giving away thousands of copies directly from their own website.

"People have so much need for information, and the information changes really fast," Lea says.

"The thing that I wanted most of all as a result of producing these programs was to give patients the tools that they needed.. so that they could make the most appropriate choices in their own health care," adds Michael.

Norma says she's amazed the pair cares so much about other people's problems

"They are doing this for other people because they know the need of other people so I'm really pleased with that," she says with a smile.

And as for Cindy, Norma reports she hasn't been sick since the family saw the video.

So for arming patients with the latest information so they don't have to pay to be informed about their own health, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Lea Bergen and Michael Yonchenko.

By Kate Kelly

Related LinksDirect Health Media

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