Healthcare~ Decisions~Social Media~Opportunities

This article from the NY Times , is very timely, and focuses on a very important conversation we need to have.

I’ve written many times on this topic before… and usually begin with … “One day a physician will look in the mirror and see a patient looking back at them”. This article brings that theory into reality.  That physician is going to know who to call, how to get an appointment tomorrow, which specialist to enlist on their team…. and they will know where to dive deep into the scientific circles focusing on the disease they are dealing with.  Will their patients’ have those same opportunities… no!  

Now, the article does not reference or mention the concept of improving our health care system so that a patient has the same degree of access to professionals or content that this physician-patient has, but it gets to an equally important point ~perhaps…

When faced with a certain diagnosis, the treatment of which the physician/patient is fluent in – – –will that physician choose the same treatment that he or she recommends to patients on a daily basis? This is an extremely important consideration. If some physicians are not willing to undergo the same treatments that they recommend day in and day out, then why are they recommending them to patients?

To a large extent, it all comes down to communications, and an appropriate discussion about the choices available, the risks associated with those choices, and an in-depth, transparent, and meaningful — informed decision-making process. Values, stories, content, evidence, transparency, validity, access and communication are all appropriate descriptors of a meaningful encounter when a medical professional is disucssing treatment options or opportunities with a patient.  

If the physician engages in an open dialogue, they may actually learn a thing or two…. and learn to be conversant about the patient communitieis that exist —and the enormous value they bring to these very same decision making moments.  Those very same communities may save a physicians own life one day!  I know they will assist me.