Medicine has changed, and it has changed for the good. And as a patient, you are empowered and educated more than ever before. You are ready to tackle your health and wellness as an informed participant, but with this empowerment the patient-physician relationship has morphed into something completely different. As medical professionals, we must meet this challenge head-on to be in a position that we can interact with you to accomplish great things. But to do so, we must all be prepared to change.
As physicians, the amount of information absorbed in medical school was enormous, and we left confident that we could tackle the process of disease. But the question remains on whether we left with enough knowhow to actually do what is best for our patients on a more global and comprehensive level. Unfortunately, many did not.
The Internet has become a vast forum for dialogue through social media, and experts and authorities have come and gone, leaving behind a slew of information that has enabled you, the health care consumer, to not only better understand what is potentially ailing you but also what your true options are. But while much of this information is accurate, much of it is not. And therein lays the danger. It is imperative that we, as medical professionals, take on the responsibility of interacting and educating patients in a responsible manner and empower them to make solid and effective decisions related to their own care. Social media has become a driving force through which we are now able to instantly educate across borders, across languages, and across the world in a way never seen before. With this comes great responsibility for us to disseminate information that is accurate and that does not sell to you, our patient. We must engage you, and we must create dialogue. And those who do not will simply be left behind.
Another positive trend that has taken hold is the insight that your health is not disjointed and that overall wellness is the best way to potentially slow down the aging process and prevent disease preemptively. Many physicians, such as myself, who sub-specialized early on recognized that knowing everything about everything was simply not practical. And so we delved into small pockets and specific treatments and became experts in our respective areas. But in so doing, many forgot that these areas have always been connected to the whole, and by focusing so keenly we ignored the broad picture and failed to see the proverbial forest through the trees. It is now critical that we participate in cross talk with our colleagues across specialties and exchange information to expand knowledge of the human process overall and deliver the utmost in care to you. As a plastic surgeon, I am honored to have engaged with other medical leaders in fields such as dermatology, facial plastic surgery, internal medicine, and others to broaden my sense of you, the patient, and challenge my own knowledge base in the process. As a result, I am delivering care in a more engaging and rounded way than ever before and viewing your wellness in a completely different manner. When someone presents to me for liposuction, instead of simply discussing how I can remove fat we discuss the process and the evolution of how they actually got to this point. Are they eating correctly? Are they getting enough exercise? Are they addressing stress in their lives? Have they thought about having their hormones and various nutrient levels checked to see if these are age-appropriate? While I concentrate on the initial concerns, I also focus on the causes behind them and what needs to be done to achieve synergy in the long run.
Even with increasing control of your health care direction, optimal wellness is only achieved when you, the consumer, take full ownership of the steps and the lifestyle changes necessary to achieve it. Education is the first step, but although we know what we need to do, many of us simply don't do it. Compliance is then the second critical step toward success in the new patient-physician relationship. With compliance, great things can be accomplished. As once stated by the well-known Chinese philosopher Confucius, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Once we take that step, success means simply continuing the momentum. For any of us to achieve real and sustainable change, the goals must be realistic and the intent solid.
And so I encourage you as a proactive and engaged manager of your own health care to engage with us as your physicians. Understand that regardless of your background, your ethnicity, where you grew up, how much you make, or what your lifestyle is, we all share common elements, and we all must take personal responsibility for achieving the very best health possible. And when we create this dialogue and truly communicate, we build something that is far greater than we, as physicians, were ever taught in school. And that, in my opinion, is worth everything.
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Rodney L. Taylor, Ph.D.: Kool-Aid, Hemlock and Confucius
Rodney L. Taylor, Ph.D.: Civility: A Contemporary Confucian Plea
Thank you for your nice words and feedback.
Healthcare has changed dramatically and will continue to change but the real key to success is education and effective communication. The better armed consumers are when they present to their physicians and the more we listen to our patients, the more likely we are to achieve synergy.
I'm glad that this article was helpful!
-Gregory A. Buford, MD FACS
www.beautybybuford.com
www.beforliving.com
The internet is a great resource for people to validate the information healthcare professional provide to them, but trust and communication with your health care provider, and patient follow through, is essential to a successful outcome, and a solid patient Doctor relationship.
Thanks for your feedback!
I definitely agree that a majority of us in healthcare actually do care about our patients and would rather work work with them than shuffle them through a system where they have no options.
Because the internet is so readily available, it is critical that we participate in providing solid information to help everyone take greater control of their healthcare. I post regularly to my blog as well as co-host a health/beauty/wellness site because I feel that this information is actually useful and because I feel a responsibility to educate. And although both take time and energy, the positive feedback so far has been enormous and definitely worth it.
Thanks again for your feedback!
-greg
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
I am not an HMO doctor and feel for those who practice within a system where patients are seen every 10-15 minutes (at the least) and where traffic volume is the indicator of success. That is not the system I practice in and it is definitely not the system that I am advocating. But even within that, many of the points that I make can be instituted.
Patients have the opportunity to be more educated about and proactive with their overall care. This is critical within any system. And, physicians have the opportunity to evaluate and work with patients as a whole being. Whether they decide to do so is simply up to them.
Do I agree with a system where we are not able to treat patients and take the time to provide solid care? Absolutely not. I understand that there are real economic pressures driving healthcare in this direction. There are also sectors of healthcare moving away from this and this is what I am speaking to. I am not addressing every problem within the current healthcare system, I am simply trying to address a new direction that is evident and growing on a daily basis.
My hope is that these educational sites continue to develop and are joined by others. Whether individual practitioners join this growing trend is their decision. I feel a personal responsibility to provide this information to patients and that is exactly why I do it.