Patient

Physicians should embrace patient engagement

Patient

October 20, 2011

The doctor/patient relationship is certainly changing and evolving. A term I hear a lot today is: “patient engagement/activation.” Why is this concept so important and what does it mean? What can physician executives do to make it easier for our patients to become engaged and activated?

Judith Hibbard has pioneered the study of patient engagement, and she noted that one needs knowledge, skills, and emotional support to actively engage in one’s …

The difference between male and female patients

Fizzy, MD

Patient

October 19, 2011

It’s never so obvious to me that there’s a big essential difference between men and women as when we take a family trip to Target.

First, when you’re holding a small baby or even an older baby or even a preschooler, you get a lot of attention. People love to look at small babies. And by “people,” I mean “women” only. When I walk around with the baby, women are constantly …

A test of faith during Ramadan

The American Doctor, MD

Patient

October 15, 2011

Of all possible times, it happened during Ramadan. The test of faith would be extreme.

Azka was the first of four children born to Persian parents in a small town thirty miles outside of Tehran, Iran. Being devout Muslims, her father chose the name Azka in part because it meant “pious”. His wife later revealed to Azka that he also liked how the name rolled off the tongue when spoken in …

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A test of faith during Ramadan

Handshakes during viral outbreaks

Emily Gibson, MD

Patient

October 14, 2011

Suffice to say, as a physician, I’m not germ phobic. If I were, I wouldn’t work as a health care provider in the “culture media” of an ambulatory care clinic. I certainly respect the pathogens I come in contact with daily, along with the host who harbors them. For the most part, the virus and the patient know I don’t have much effective artillery to fight back with and my …

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Handshakes during viral outbreaks

Use body language to improve your patient encounter

Niamh van Meines, ANP-BC, EMT

Patient

October 13, 2011

While body language can be interpreted in many ways and it’s not an exact science, it is often possible to read body language and have a basic understanding of a persons mood or dispositions and the rapport that people have with each other through observing non-verbal communication. This issue focuses on reading everything that hands can tell you and ways to use your hands to influence interactions with others.

What’s …

Why Dr. Oz is wrong about arsenic and apple juice

Roy Benaroch, MD

Patient

October 13, 2011

The Dr. Oz show recently featured a scary show about deadly arsenic in apple juice. On his own web site, he trumpets “Dr. Oz’s Extensive National Investigation,” and claims “After testing dozens of samples from three different cities in America, Dr. Oz discovered that some of the nation’s best known brands of apple juice contain arsenic.”

His show further claimed that based on his independent testing, many brands of apple juice …

What does the Explanation of Benefits really mean?

David Williams

Patient

October 12, 2011

I recently had some physical therapy for a minor injury. Since the office forgot to charge my co-pay the first time I went in I received a so-called Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from my insurance carrier, BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts. EOBs are a holdover from the mainframe era: arcane, inflexible reports that are hard to interpret. They may have done their job in the day when their only purpose was …

The United States lacks postpartum support for mothers

Rajka Milanovic Galbraith, MD

Patient

October 12, 2011

Last month, vegan couple Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas’ appeal of their life in prison sentence was overturned. The couple reportedly starved their 6 week old to death by feeding him only soymilk and apple juice. When reading this, so many questions arise. How could they not know their child was starving? Where was their support? Were they truly negligent? And what happened to all the systems in place to protect children?

In an …

Hospital discharge summaries are a health literacy issue

Hilary Seligman, MD

Patient

October 11, 2011

A couple of years ago, a frail 88 year old Filipino woman came into the emergency department of my hospital complaining of confusion and weakness of her left arm. Her blood sugar level was extraordinarily low, so low that she would have died had she not received immediate treatment.

The emergency room doctors treated her by injecting her with sugar, and then called the team of internists on call to admit …

Top 5 myths about empowered patients

Steve Wilkins, MPH

Patient

October 10, 2011

Irrational exuberance was a term once used to describe the stock market before the last crash. It also seems an apt description for much of the talk these days about empowered health consumers.

To be sure, patients today have unprecedented access to health information. Patient decision-support tool can be found on just about every provider, payer and self-insured employer website. Consumers can go to any number of websites to find …

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Top 5 myths about empowered patients

Is teaching bedside manner a thing of the past?

Jackie Fox

Patient

October 6, 2011

I caught the tail end of a recent #hcsm (health-care social media) tweetchat and it looked to be a good one. I saw a few comments about teaching bedside manner and whether it’s a thing of the past (oh, how I hope not). It occurred to me that sharing a real-life story could be instructive.

I put on a brave face when I got a mastectomy for stage 0 DCIS …

Practical tips for a more comfortable mammogram

Stacey Vitiello, MD

Patient

October 6, 2011

By now you’ve probably seen the internet jokes that compare the mammogram experience to having your breast squashed in a refrigerator door. A few years back, I joined the club of women who have our annual mammograms, and I can’t say that I disagree with the imagery of the jokes. However, the benefits of early detection far outweigh the discomfort, so I’m willing to put up with it.

I’d like to …

When to see a doctor if you have a new symptom

Rick Donahue, MD

Patient

October 6, 2011

Patients and friends tell me it’s sometimes difficult to decide exactly what symptoms merit a doctor’s appointment. I find that it helps to think of three basic categories of visits. One category is the all-important annual checkup, which assesses and promotes overall health and can detect signs of early disease. Another category is the follow-up appointment to track chronic conditions or recovery from a major illness.

But the third category …

You may benefit from having a medical student care for you

Vineet Arora, MD

Patient

October 4, 2011

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Amid the buzz about whether medical students should be sued and the bill currently debated in Arizona (a state which finds itself in the spotlight more than usual these days), I noticed some commentary from several people who do not think they would like a medical student on their case. Sometimes patients do refuse to be cared for by medical …

Patients and families must be tireless in expressing any frustrations

Norman Silverman, MD

Patient

October 4, 2011

I was reading the other day in a magazine the personal account of a woman who had a “perfect example of a mitral valve click” (a type of heart murmur) that was so textbook in sound that she was asked to be a listening post for a class of medical students. She was pleased to help, but was disappointed in how of the 15 examiners no one treated her like …

Obese Americans don’t actually realize they are obese

David Gratzer, MD

Patient

October 3, 2011

What if you passed a regulation, and nobody cared? Obesity is quickly emerging as a major policy issue, with related health costs consuming 10 cents on every health dollar – and rising. Policymakers, then, are eager for ideas. Top of the list: regulations to force chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. This past Friday, the FDA released proposed regulations to force restaurants to do exactly that.

New York …

Considering patient advocacy as a career

Trisha Torrey

Patient

October 3, 2011

Several questions have come my way recently about what kinds of job opportunities might exist for patient advocates. I refer people to an article I’ve written elsewhere, but the real answer is – to be a true advocate, you must analyze who is paying for your services, and what your responsibility will be to them.

Finding an employer

In 2011, most of the job possibilities for patient advocates are …

A day in the life of a hospice professional

Rev. Amy Ziettlow

Patient

October 3, 2011

I know of few students who aspire to serve in end of life care. I sure didn’t. If anyone had told me that I would spend the first decade of my professional life serving the dying and their families as well as thinking, writing and talking about death and I dying, I would have thought that person to be morbid, strange, and sad. Most of society does not think …

Forget the mommy wars, offer support instead

Melissa Arca, MD

Patient

October 2, 2011

I was just thinking the other day how much I need my mom friends. The ones I’m fortunate enough to have in real life and the ones (you) who come here, read, offer support, share your stories, and commiserate at times.

All of you moms are incredibly important to me. It doesn’t matter to me whether you’ve breastfed or bottle fed, whether you are a champion of sleep training or prefer co-sleeping, …

Patients have a part to play in their own medical care

Sharon Bahrych, PA-C, MPH

Patient

October 2, 2011

Medicine has changed so much over the past years, I look back even to when I finished my program and in the mere 20 years since I finished, medicine has changed dramatically. I can remember when I was a student, seeing a patient with rheumatoid arthritis and advising her that the best treatment we could give her was a DMARD. Now we have multiple monoclonal antibodies that not only …

Patient

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