The tool kits in the PPE project offer the physician and office staff an organized approach that is coordinated with specially designed educational materials for patients. The handouts provided with each tool kit supplement the physician's efforts to prepare the patient and family for their roles in making decisions during the evaluation and in the early stages of the management of any chronic condition. The clinical process presented in each tool kit offers:

• an approach that encourages patients to collect and record information relevant to the problem prior to a visit
• the means to shorten the time needed for explanations during visits
• the information that the patient and family need in order to make decisions at follow-up visits
• ways to engage office personnel in evaluation and management
• the means to record information so that the physician in a Medicare fee-for-service environment can expect sufficient reimbursement to justify the time spent with the patient.

The PPE Project has been developed through the efforts of many health and education professionals:

PPE Toolkits Editor Bruce E. Robinson, MD, MPH

PPE Project Leaders
Sharon Levine, MD
Bruce E. Robinson, MD, MPH
Nancy Renick, MS, CHES
Patricia P. Barry, MD, MPH (emeritus)

PPE Steering Committee
Lanyard Dial, MD
Robert Fox, EdD
William J. Hall, MD
Jocelyn Lockyer, MHA
David B. Reuben, MD

PPE Consultants
Georgette Stratos, PhD
David Davis, MD

PPE Educational Advisory Committee
Sharon Brangman, MD
Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD
James Picala, MD, MS
Jill Rhymes, MD
Rhoda Pomerantz, MD, MPH

PPE Expert Faculty
Lisa J Granville, MD
Glenda L. Westmoreland, MD, MPH
Jeremy Boals, MD

PPE Contributors
Christopher Langston, PhD, The John A Hartford Foundation
Nancy Lundebjerg, The American Geriatrics Society