Health Dialog
Health Dialog (www.healthdialog.com ) provides telephonic Health Coaching and other support services to help people make the best healthcare decisions for themselves and their families.

Health Coaches can work with individuals on a wide range of healthcare issues, whether it's learning how to better manage a chronic disease, making a decision about having surgery, or considering an emergency room visit for a sprained ankle. Health Coaches won't replace a person's doctor or other healthcare providers; rather, they help people get the most out of every office visit. Health Coaches provide unbiased information and help individuals assess their values and preferences as they make healthcare decisions with their doctors.

Health Coaches are specially trained healthcare professionals such as nurses, dietitians, and respiratory therapists, and are available to participants 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
The Foundation (www.fimdm.org ) was established in 1989 as a not-for-profit medical education research foundation. The primary mission of the Foundation is to strengthen the role patients play in selecting treatments for their medical conditions.

Medical research on practice variation indicates that patient preferences are often less important in treatment decisions than factors having little to do with patients or their illnesses, such as geography, economics or supplier-induced demands.

The Foundation achieves its mission via the following objectives:

• Provide patients with the perspectives and information they need when they face decisions about medical testing and treatment.
• Improve the quality of decisions patients make in collaboration with their physicians.
• Foster research to learn how best to help patients who face healthcare decisions.