How To Talk To Your Doctor

The last time you went to your doctor, you might have emerged feeling dissatisfied and disoriented. Nothing was clear after you left the office, and you don't know whether it's your fault or the doctor's. But that's beside the point: the important thing is to identify the problem at the root of this experience and take steps to change it. Talking to Your Doctor helps readers navigate the new, more promising waters of doctor-patient collaboration, starting at the simplest and most human interaction--the conversation between two people in a room--and ending with the benefits that can be obtained by cultivating an effective partnership. While patients need to take control of the visit and set their agenda, the latest research shows that doctors and patients need to connect on a more emotional level as well. In Talking to Your Doctor, readers will: -Learn how to talk to your doctor--and get your doctor to talk to you -Discover the science of doctor-patient communication and its relevance to the lay public -Remake the relationship with your doctor, and our health care system, on the basis of good communication -Make sure your visit with the doctor is productive and meets your needs -Help yourself and others avoid over-testing and over-treatment Starting with the conversation can redress imbalances and put the relationship of doctor and patient, and eventually the entire health care system, back on a healthy footing. Using illuminating model dialogues, real transcripts from the clinic and hospital, resources for communication improvement, and a brief history of doctor-patient communication, the author helps readers develop strategies for obtaining better care from their doctors, from the minute they step into the exam room.

Showing patients how to take control of their own health care, this guide reveals how to navigate the maze of prescriptions and tests and offers advice for those who act as medical advocates for their children, aging parents, or others.

Now more than ever patients are taking control of their own health care, leaving many conventional physicians unsure about their role as dispensers of medical knowledge. More waiting rooms are now filled with highly informed medical consumers seeking to partner with their doctors. They want to explore all promising treatiments, both mainstream and alternative, and connect emotionally. To physicians, these patients seem needy and demanding. They expect a lot of attention, but are all too quick to question authority and battle doctors for control of medical care. To patients, though, such physicans come off as distant and stodgy, even arrogant. Many walk away entirely from mainstream medicine seeking a better partnership or they neglect to mention the alternative tretments they're using for fear of disapproval. Less assertive patients simply clam up-put off by doctors' increasingly brusque bedside manner and shorthand use of "medicalese." The unfortunate result in each case is the same: miscommunication and missed opportunities. Patiens fail to receive the best care available to them, and doctor-patient relationships fall far short of the caring and mutually satisfying exchanges they should be. "How to Talk with Your Doctor" is a book for patients and doctors alike. It arms patients with the tools and knowledge they need to communicate better with physicians about using the best high-tech and alternative treatments while also helping doctors balance their skepticism of complementary and alternative approaches with open-mindedness.

I interviewed 50 doctors using about four pages of questions developed based on the professional research literature on doctoring and my personal professional experience working with doctors. The interviews lasted between 30 minutes and two hours. I sat down with the doctor interviewees, one by one. They talked, I typed. They met with me in between patients, taking breaks to answer emails, texts, phone calls, or deal with emergencies, or after hours, on time off, during paperwork time, or while eating a rushed meal. It is also worth mentioning that some of the doctor interviewees experienced their own traumas close to the time of our interview, such as their own illness or that of someone close to them, or the death of a family member or close friend. Several of them experienced the death of their own child. Remarkably, they all kept working, each one saying that helping others helped them to cope with their own pain. After completing the interviews, I am left with an even deeper understanding of the health care crisis. It is my hope that these interviews will expose an intimate portrait of the gravity and urgency of our healthcare crisis. It is with the utmost gratitude, admiration, and humility, that I thank my doctor interviewees for their help with this task.