How do I work with Medical Professionals to receive the best possible care?
1. Ask for a copy of your medical records, especially all tests results. Keep these in a folder of your own and provide copies to any doctor you see for additional opinions or treatment. This will let them know what tests were run and what approaches were taken. This will provide lots of useful info to the new doctor so he/she doesn’t go down the same path. Do not rely upon your memory for this. 2. As you think of questions between visits, write them down and come prepared to ask the doctor. 3. At the visit, take paper and pen in the room with you so you can take notes on your questions and your doctor’s suggestions. Again, don’t rely upon your memory for this. I find doctor’s respond differently when I’m taking notes and asking my prepared questions. 4. During the visit, offer up more information than what the doctor requests. If it feels like an intestinal issue, talk about why you feel that it’s intestinal; what are your stools like, have you noticed discomfort after eating certain
You have already listed the things that make for a productive doctor-patient relationship– comfort/trust (this goes both ways), the self-confidence to ask questions, and some level of education (learning to speak the language). You can judge a doctor’s skill, to a certain extent, by the quality and quantity of the questions he/she asks. That it took you a year for a doctor to ask if you were experiencing any other intestinal symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, nausea, blood in stool, etc), is bit disheartening. 2nd question should have been whether it related to any specific activities, foods, etc. If they’re not asking these questions, you should definitely find a better doctor. Once you are headed in the direction of a diagnosis, then you can start with self education– webmd, google, pubmed, etc, to learn about the physiology of the condition, other related/misdiagnosed illnesses, possible treatment courses, current trends in diagnosis and treatment, etc. There are often “reviews” of
This is an interesting thread. I agree that it is important for the patient to trust and work with the doctor to some extent, even without full understanding. I will spend an hour or more, if necessary, explaining things to my patients; but when they expect me to put them through medical school and a neurology residency during their clinic visit, and equip them with the judgment they need to corroborate my conclusions independently, I cannot accomodate them. If it’s not working, though, don’t be afraid to find another doc. I’ve had my patients correctly diagnosed by other doctors, with and without referrals, and it’s always delightful when that happens. No living doctor can master the entirety even of his own specialty these days, much less the entirety of medicine, so when you have a diagnostic problem, more opinions can be helpful.
I think it’s worth posting a (slightly) dissenting view. I would firstly agree with preparing questions and writing them down if necessary and finding someone who has a style that suits you. Then stick with them. But consider that sometimes you are drawing adverse conclusions about thought processes of someone who can’t be expected to explain every little detail and the reasoning behind all decisions. It’s just not possible. That’s of course on top of the fact that you have limited knowledge as well. When we take our cars to mechanics we must have some faith that the tradesman will know what they are doing. It’s analogous with the work of Doctors though of course it’s accepted that health is of paramount concern. So while asking questions ought to be encouraged and even obtaining a second opinion is indicated if the first visit is of particular concern, it’s also beneficial to your mental wellbeing to have some element of faith that the professional you see will be trying to do their b
The New York Tmes is running a nice series on patient (consumers) relationships with medicine. Of note, the move away from medical paternalism to more automony for patients (Savvy patients). Some patients and physicians have trouble with this move and prefer a more paternalistic relationship or vice-versa. Your experience with technology may not help understand the patient-physician relationship… but just as most computer malfunctions are software related rather than hardware many patients problems are not serious structural problems and self-correct with time. Because of the high likelyhood the problem is software related, hardware problems are often not suspected til all else fails to work (all software issues are ruled out). The technology jargon term “JOT” (just one of those things) that explains hardware glitches that are sporatic or go away is analogous to some people problems also. Nonetheless, problems that persist despite “trial and error” approches to solving them are eventia
