Learning From Our Patients
by Timothy Gieseke, MD
Medical Director and Postacute Care Specialist
 

At the recent Coalition for Compassionate Care 2016 Annual Summit in Newport Beach, we heard a presentation from E- Patient Dave, which related his challenging experience navigating the medical care system to receive the care that he thought was appropriate for his stage 4 renal cell carcinoma.

As I heard his presentation, I thought of the old adage that we learn more medicine from our patients than from our text books because “diseases don’t read textbooks”.  This was true in my own experience overseeing the care of my mother with vascular and Alzheimer dementia as well as my father-in-law with vascular dementia and refractory LBP.

In modern medicine’s economic driven rush to provide timely and efficient generic care, we may error by failing to allow time to learn from our patients and their families.  E – Patient Dave exposed this error and other journals are now exposing this need on the part of clinicians.  I understand that the BMJ has made a commitment to have 1 article a month from the patient’s perspective.  Today, I discovered this article from JAMA, Internal Medicine on a daughter reflecting on the unnecessary replacement of her father’s AICD.  I encourage you to read this short story (http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=2522399).  I believe it will challenge you to think more deeply about how we need to understand our patients’ perspective and to battle for what they value.  This may cost us precious time as well as thinking outside the box, but it’s the right thing to do and I predict will become a part of “high value” care.

Carpe Diem!

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