INTRODUCING EMMI: Better Outcomes Through Better Educated Patients

At Stony Brook we believe that the more active role patients take in their own care the healthier they will be. Many medical decisions are ultimately in the hands of our patients themselves, and therefore we want them to know as much as possible about their own health and the care we can provide in partnership with them.

This is especially true when patients are preparing to have heart surgery. To help them in this process, we started in April 2006 to offer a unique form of patient education, called Emmi, to our patients about to have coronary artery bypass graft surgery and valve replacement surgery.

Emmi stands for expectation management and medical information. It is interactive, web-based, and specifically designed to help patients and their family members understand everything they need to know about the cardiac procedure that they are about to undergo. It helps to educate them and let them know exactly what they can expect before, during, and after their surgery.

The more knowledge patients have, the better their outcome. It is well known that effective patient education makes the healthcare process easier for both physicians and nurses, as well as patients, and such education ultimately helps to improve all touch points along the continuum of care.

Emmi can be viewed at our patients' own pace in the hospital (bedside) via laptop computer or in the comfort of their own home, when the surgery they need does not have to be done on an emergency basis.

While viewing the Emmi heart surgery programs, they are given the opportunity to send questions to their physicians or let their physicians know what risks are of particular concern to them. These concerns are then placed in their medical record. Finally, since Emmi is on the web, patients can share their heart surgery program with friends or loved ones anywhere in the world as long as they have access to the Internet.

Stony Brook has always been a leader in bringing the newest treatment and technologies to improve the quality of care that we offer. In this tradition of excellence, we are proud to use the Emmi heart surgery programs with our patients.

All Emmi programs are developed by board-certified surgeons in their respective fields. Our chief of cardiothoracic surgery, Todd K. Rosengart, MD, professor of surgery, contributed to the development of the Emmi heart surgery programs.

For an Emmi demo, please visit www.emmidemo.com and view the program on coronary artery bypass graft surgery.