Be Active: Take Charge of Your Health Care

The single, most important thing you can do to ensure you get high-quality health care is to find and use health information and take an active role in making decisions about your care.

Here are some steps you can take to improve your care:

• Work together with your doctor and other members of the health care team to make decisions about your care.
• Be sure to ask questions. (Select for examples of questions to ask your doctor.)
• Ask your doctor what the scientific evidence has to say about your condition.
• Do your homework; go online or to the library to find out more information about your condition.
• Find and use quality information in making health care choices. Be sure the information comes from a reliable source.

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