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HELPING
YOUR DOCTOR HELP YOU
How to Build Collaborative Partnerships
with Family, Friends and Physicians
"If you don't ask, your
doctor might not tell. If you don't tell, your doctor might
not ask"
---- Marie Savard, M.D.
Isn't it ironic...
that the very heart of medicine - the doctor/patient
relationship - is threatened on all sides despite phenomenal
advances in technology and research telling you that a good
outcome relies on the degree of your involvement? Tilt the
scale in your favor! Form fruitful partnerships and counter
the ugly realities of the time-stressed health care system.
The notion that
all you have to do is find a good doctor who will take care of
you is definitely comforting. However, my own experience and
research has shown that the more you get involved in
preventing and managing illness, instead of relying on your
doctor as a cure-all, the healthier you'll be. To paraphrase
Kaplan and Greenberg, two leading experts on patient
involvement, no amount of technically excellent care will
replace what a person can and should do on their own. I will
share lots of ideas about how to interact and collaborate with
your doctor and to make the decisions that are right for you.
"Wouldn't it be great if all patients would bring to the doctors office, copies of their test results and all their health information. It would take less time working with an informed
patient." - Anthony R. Piccolo, DO
"The health record system is an impressive piece of work - I only wish my records were that well
organized."
- Dr. Gene Bishop, Internist and Expert in Women's Health
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