While the increase of “virtual” doctors has been on the rise due to mobile apps, there is still tremendous value in face-to-face communication with your primary care physician. Talking to your doctor is difficult and sometimes awkward, but by investing in quality communication, you help protect you and your family’s health.
Virtualization Can’t Replace Family Health Care
As patients, you visit your doctor in your most vulnerable state. As doctors, there is a need to comfort and appease patients – they want to say that you are of sound health, that nothing is wrong, and your deepest medical fears are unsubstantiated. Sometimes that assessment is accurate, and sometimes it isn’t.
An aspect that tends to be overlooked by the virtualization of a doctor’s visit is the unique and complex dynamics between the primary care physician and the patients they look after. In medicine, one of the guiding principles is to “first, do no harm.” Even when family doctors disagree with certain practices or beliefs, the family doctor puts a value in building these relationships. This dynamic is hard or impossible to emulate in an online setting.
Communicating With Your Primary Care Physician
Problems with a doctor-patient relationship can be very damaging, even dangerous. Severe erosion of the relationship can have significant negative implications, including leading a patient not to trust their physician, or not allowing a doctor to engage with the patient’s latent symptoms, increasing chances of mistakes. However, some steps can be taken to solidify the doctor-patient relationship.
Document your health with a healthcare Journal. Having a healthcare Journal not only helps you pinpoint any physiological changes, but it can also be an asset to help your primary care physician to assess your symptoms. It can also be used as a database for names and contact information of the members of your healthcare team. A healthcare journal is particularly beneficial if you’re being introduced to a new medication and you aren’t sure as to how it may affect you in the long term.
Preparing a list of questions. Even if you have a journal prepared, prepare a list of questions or concerns you may have and bring them up with your family physician. Also, write down your doctor’s answers to these questions and concerns. If you aren’t able to write down these questions, ask a trusted family member to accompany you to your appointments to help record them.
Do not be afraid to be assertive and communicative. If you do not understand a particular phrase or medical jargon that is used by your family physician, then ask them to clarify. Make sure that the answers are specific to your concerns – your physician is interested in empowering you, and that cannot happen if you are you not understanding.
The Diamond Physicians Advantage
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