Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Professor and patient advocate Edward G. Rogoff discusses his article “How to choose the right doctor for you.” In this episode, Edward explains why selecting the right physician is one of the most important health decisions a patient can make. He shares practical guidelines such as finding a doctor who specializes in your condition, evaluating service orientation and training background, and applying a “chemistry test” to assess personal connection and trust. Edward emphasizes that patients should not settle for rushed encounters or profit-driven practices but instead seek physicians who act as teachers, motivators, and true partners in care. Listeners will learn actionable strategies to reclaim agency in navigating the health care system and to secure the care they deserve.

Our presenting sponsor is Microsoft Dragon Copilot.

Microsoft Dragon Copilot, your AI assistant for clinical workflow, is transforming how clinicians work. Now you can streamline and customize documentation, surface information right at the point of care, and automate tasks with just a click.

Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot offers an extensible AI workspace and a single, integrated platform to help unlock new levels of efficiency. Plus, it’s backed by a proven track record and decades of clinical expertise, and it’s built on a foundation of trust.

It’s time to ease your administrative burdens and stay focused on what matters most with Dragon Copilot, your AI assistant for clinical workflow.

VISIT SPONSOR → https://aka.ms/kevinmd

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

RECOMMENDED BY KEVINMD → https://www.kevinmd.com/recommended

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast. Today we welcome Edward G. Rogoff. He’s a professor of entrepreneurship, patient advocate, and author of the book, Scary Diagnosis, Navigating Fear, Finding Strength, and Securing the Health Care You Deserve. There’s an excerpt from that book on KevinMD. Edward, welcome to the show.

Edward G. Rogoff: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Kevin Pho: All right. Let’s start by briefly sharing your story and then jumping into the excerpt that you shared with us on KevinMD.

Edward G. Rogoff: Sure. I was born with hemophilia. As a child, the treatments for hemophilia were very limited. As I became older, after I was around 20, the treatments drastically improved. Today they’re quite good. But I was hospitalized a number of times as a child. I dealt with a lot of issues with school and family, etc., etc., while dealing with it.

I became active in the hemophilia association and I was the president of the hemophilia association for many years. I’m still on the board. I was on the board of Live on New York, which is the organ donor network in New York. My connection to that is that 14 or 15 years ago, I received a liver transplant because I had contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion as a child. Over the years it diseased my liver, and I had cirrhosis. I had liver cancer and I wonderfully got a liver transplant, which cured all that, including my hemophilia.

I’ve been active with patient groups. I’ve been connected to many patients personally for many years, and that prompted me to write this book. I felt there were many issues that patients needed to learn about, and there was a lot of wisdom that I could garner from people I had met on various issues of being a patient and dealing with the health care system.

Kevin Pho: So let’s talk about one of those issues that you excerpted on KevinMD: “How to choose the right doctor for you.” Tell me what this particular excerpt is about.

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes, to start with, I think a lot of patients don’t feel they have any agency or any power in selecting their doctor. They feel, “Well, this is who my doctor gave me to treat my particular ailment… or this is who my insurance company came up with on the website.” They feel they have no agency in that, and that’s by and large not the case. They should be willing to be active in this and make an informed decision about who they want for their doctor.

I think there are a lot of issues. One is: Does the doctor really treat exactly what you have? Is this a doctor who specializes in caring for patients who have your ailment? Number two: Does the doctor pass a chemistry test with you? Do you feel comfortable with this person? Do you feel comfortable sharing information with them and being completely open with them?

I recommend that patients look at the history of the doctor, not just the medical school, but also where they did their training. Did they do their training at a really patient-focused institution, where the doctor would have received knowledge and experience in a culture that’s patient-focused?

So I think there are a lot of issues that a patient can be active about and end up with the right doctor. We’ve all known people who say wonderful things about their doctors: “I’m so lucky I have so-and-so, and this person’s been so generous with me with their time.” And then there are others who think, “I dread going to see this doctor because I know he or she is going to push me out in six or eight minutes and not listen to what I’m saying.”

Kevin Pho: Isn’t some of that context-dependent? For example, seeing a specialist versus a primary care doctor, or whether you have an uncommon or rare condition versus going for a routine checkup. Finding a doctor, for instance, that may only treat a rare condition may be more difficult than finding someone for a routine checkup. Right?

Edward G. Rogoff: Right. And look, very few people end up with just one doctor, right? People end up being treated by a team. That team includes the doctor and the nurses and the assistants in the office. There’s a team there. You need a GP, but you also may need a pulmonologist. You may need a neurologist. You need to accept that and work towards building that team that you feel is giving you what you need.

Kevin Pho: Going a little more granular, let’s say a patient gets the name of a particular physician, as you said, from the insurance website, or their primary care doctor refers that patient to a specific specialist. You said that patients should do research on that doctor. Tell us where they can start doing so.

Edward G. Rogoff: They can start with Google. It’s really simple. There’s so much information available quickly, easily, and publicly. Most doctors publish their bios anyway. But if they’re associated with a hospital, they probably have a bio there that gets them started.

I’m a big believer that the new AI tools that are coming out are easy to use, provide a lot of information, and are interactive. Google is a wonderful resource, without a doubt. But using an AI tool, you can now probe the system. “Can you tell me anything more about this doctor? Have the doctor’s patients published anything about them, written anything about them? Does the doctor have any lawsuits? What happened with those lawsuits?”

So, you can probe and find out about this doctor. Are there any videos available about the doctor? Almost all doctors now have some video content somewhere, and that gives the patient a little knowledge and feel for what kind of person this is.

Kevin Pho: Now, one of the things that you said is to research where they went to medical school and whether their residency was patient-focused. How are patients supposed to know which residency is more patient-focused versus others?

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes, I think you need to look at those institutions. Look, if a doctor trained at the Mayo Clinic, it’s a pretty good guess that that person is going to have been trained in a patient-focused setting. I had my liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. It is a wonderful institution and I would feel comfortable about any doctor who was trained in their system, who’s gone on to work someplace else. But if it’s not a well-known institution with a high profile, again, you have to do a little research.

Also, you can ask people at the institution you’re at. Ask the nurses, ask the assistants, “Can you tell me, is this doctor friendly and patient with their patients? Do you think I’ll be happy with this doctor?” I think it’s worth doing that work ahead of time.

The subsequent part to that is whether you’ve done the work or not. After the first meeting or two with the doctor, if you’re not comfortable, you should work on changing. Find another doctor.

I have a friend who has some heart issues. Her husband goes with her to the doctor’s appointments and the cardiologist that they saw said to the husband, “I want you to sit over there behind me,” and wouldn’t answer the husband’s questions. This is enough warning signs that you should be somewhere else. That’s not the way you want to be treated.

Kevin Pho: That goes to what you said earlier about the chemistry test, right? That you have with the doctor after meeting them for the first time. Do you think this is more of a gut feeling? Or do you have a systemic approach to see whether you have proverbial chemistry with that doctor?

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes. Well, I think one thing is, and I feel sorry for doctors who are in these systems that so drastically limit and monitor how much time they spend with each patient. That’s probably not what they got into this profession to do. But nonetheless, if you are the recipient of that and you feel that the doctor is watching the clock more than they’re watching you, that person is going to fail the chemistry test.

Kevin Pho: One of the things I wanted to get back to when Googling doctors online is the issue of patient ratings, right? Google itself has five-star ratings for doctors. How much stock should patients take into other patient reviews of a particular physician when they’re researching them?

Edward G. Rogoff: Very little. That’s not a good system, right? People can be unhappy with doctors for a lot of reasons having nothing to do with the doctor: having to do with the institution, their personal situation, or their health condition. There are all kinds of reasons. And then there are doctors who manage the ratings to get people to write positive ratings. I’ve had doctors who have asked me to go and post a rating on their site. I guess it’s good that they’re managing it, but they’re obviously only going to ask a select group of patients who they think are going to post very positive messages. So I wouldn’t put too much stock in those.

Kevin Pho: What about the physician shortage? Not all patients have the luxury of choosing another physician if they don’t pass that chemistry test with the first one. What about in those situations where sometimes it takes six to 12 months to see a particular specialist? What do patients do in that context?

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes. Well, this really speaks to some of the big shortcomings in the health care system in the U.S. It’s terrible. Obviously, in a sense, you need to accept what you can get. You may not be thrilled with it, but that may be the best you can do. But you shouldn’t give up on looking for somebody who you’re really happy with. It’s really a problem. And I think the other thing is, Kevin, that a lot of care is given by people other than the doctor. The doctor’s assistant, the nurse practitioner… many patients end up dealing with them over the long run more than they deal with the doctor.

Kevin Pho: Now, let’s zoom out a bit. This excerpt, of course, was from your book, Scary Diagnosis, Navigating Fear, Finding Strength, and Securing the Health Care You Deserve. Outside of choosing the right doctor for you, tell us some of the other key messages you want readers to come away with after reading your book.

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes, I want them to realize that they can’t do this alone. They need to build a team. I talk about in the book what team members you want, who you want on the team, and who you don’t want on the team. I think that’s a very important part of this.

I’m trying to inform patients in the book of the broad issues that they’re going to confront in the health care system: to understand how insurance companies work, to understand how hospitals work, to understand what they’re going to go through emotionally as they deal with that scary diagnosis and how to cope with it.

Ultimately, the book is not negative. The book is positive. Certainly, there are diagnoses that lead to negative outcomes, but by and large, if you’re going to have a serious issue, you’re going to be fine, and you’re going to deal with it. You’re going to get care. The medical system is, in many ways, better than it’s ever been.

So you need to maintain some optimism about getting through this and that you’re going to come out the other side. Along the way, you need to maintain your life. You need to stay close to your family. You need to stay connected at work as much as possible. So the book has a broad range of issues that it covers, from the emotional issues that affect the patient and the caregivers to the nuts and bolts of being a patient and dealing with the broader health care system.

Kevin Pho: Let’s quickly address the first thing you said in terms of who patients want on their team and who they don’t want on their team. Can you answer that question?

Edward G. Rogoff: Yes. They want people who are going to do things that they have trouble doing. Maybe you need somebody to pay bills for you. Maybe you need somebody to go to appointments with you. Maybe you need somebody who’s just going to come over and watch baseball games with you so that you can maintain as much as possible a happy existence while you’re going through your treatment.

Who you don’t want on the team are people who think they know more than the doctors. You don’t want people who are self-proclaimed experts and are going to start telling you what to do. Ultimately, this is the patient’s decision as to how to proceed with their care. People who express their opinions is one thing; people who bully the patient to do this or do that, you don’t want that.

You don’t want people who are negative. There are many people who just, as a matter of their personality, become very negative when they encounter the health care system. You don’t want that. You want the right mix of people, and it makes a huge difference. I say this over and over: You can’t do it alone. I’ve been through a lot of health issues and I never could have done any of them alone.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Edward G. Rogoff. He’s a professor of entrepreneurship, patient advocate, and author of the book, Scary Diagnosis, Navigating Fear, Finding Strength, and Securing the Health Care You Deserve. That excerpt from KevinMD is “How to choose the right doctor for you.” Edward, let’s end with some take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Edward G. Rogoff: The take-home message is this is a big, complicated system with many issues to deal with. As you encounter it, you need to work on learning and familiarizing yourself with various aspects of the system. The more you know, the more comfortable you’ll be, the better care you’ll receive, and the better the outcome will be.

Kevin Pho: Edward, thank you again for sharing your perspective and insight. Thanks again for coming on the show.

Edward G. Rogoff: Kevin, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much.