As healthcare providers work to keep up with current medical evidence, which doubles in volume every 73 days, patients are equally challenged as they wade through a sea of disinformation as they try to get informed about their health.
Alignment between patient information and provider evidence is critical; in the absence of trusted, evidence-based education, patients are left with understanding gaps and may turn to unreliable sources to fill them.
The patient understanding gap
The 2026 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Healthcare Survey found that more than half of consumers are using or would consider using AI chat tools to research side effects, learn about diagnoses, and check symptoms. Additionally, according to a KFF poll on health information and trust, over half of social media users seek out information or advice via social media “at least occasionally” – and even those who never seek it out report seeing health-related content.
This underscores the critical importance of providing evidence-based patient education that aligns with clinician guidance. When information comes from fragmented sources or draws on single studies without context, it can diverge from the evidence clinicians use at the point of care.
Patients need more support to understand their care
Clinicians are expected to stay current with all this new evidence, while patients try to understand increasingly complex information about their own health. In a Wolters Kluwer survey of people with recent health encounters:
- Nearly half of the respondents reported still having unanswered questions after their provider encounter.
- 80% had follow-up questions “often” or “sometimes.”
Even when information is delivered, patients forget 40-80% of what they’re told during care encounters, leaving critical gaps between what clinicians recommend and what patients act on.
Patients need more support to absorb and retain important care information. That same Wolters Kluwer survey found:
- 80% would be more satisfied with their care if they received patient education
- 68% would be more likely to return to providers who offer patient education
Patient education directly impacts outcomes, satisfaction, and continuity of care.
When clinicians and patients rely on the same evidence at the center of care, clinical expertise, research, and patient preferences can come together to support informed, shared decision-making.