WRITER * ARTIST * DOCTOR * PATIENT * MOTHER
Receiving important test results is usually stressful – but this stress can be addressed. Online patient portals aren’t necessarily the way to do that. As physicians, we need to be mindful of how our patients want results communicated. My experience in my latest for Doximity.
Medical school teaches us open-ended questions are best. We are told to avoid interrupting patients, allow them get their whole story out before we jump in—to prompt them only with nods or gentle “hmmm’s” and maybe a “tell me more.” But years of practice can erode this open style. Experience focuses our questioning to what…
Much like a tree, illness can branch in different directions. When you are at the trunk, it can be difficulty to know along which branch your illness will travel. Why the story of illness matters in my latest article for Doximity.
Too often, we physicians find what we expect to find … we assume and too quickly close our minds to other possibilities. One patient – a regular in the emergency department for his methamphetamine use disorder – taught me how dangerous this can be. He just wouldn’t stop bleeding … Read more here. Discover is…
Sometimes a rash is more than superficial. Without looking beyond the skin, its cause can remain undiscovered. Read more in my latest piece in Discover magazine … subscribe (all whole year for just the cost of a few fancy coffees!) to read the whole thing!