The last time you went to your doctor, you might have emerged feeling dissatisfied and disoriented. Nothing was clear after you left the office, and you don't know whether it's your fault or the doctor's. But that's beside the point: the important thing is to identify the problem at the root of this experience and take steps to change it. Talking to Your Doctor helps readers navigate the new, more promising waters of doctor-patient collaboration, starting at the simplest and most human interaction--the conversation between two people in a room--and ending with the benefits that can be obtained by cultivating an effective partnership. While patients need to take control of the visit and set their agenda, the latest research shows that doctors and patients need to connect on a more emotional level as well. In Talking to Your Doctor, readers will: -Learn how to talk to your doctor--and get your doctor to talk to you -Discover the science of doctor-patient communication and its relevance to the lay public -Remake the relationship with your doctor, and our health care system, on the basis of good communication -Make sure your visit with the doctor is productive and meets your needs -Help yourself and others avoid over-testing and over-treatment Starting with the conversation can redress imbalances and put the relationship of doctor and patient, and eventually the entire health care system, back on a healthy footing. Using illuminating model dialogues, real transcripts from the clinic and hospital, resources for communication improvement, and a brief history of doctor-patient communication, the author helps readers develop strategies for obtaining better care from their doctors, from the minute they step into the exam room.

I interviewed 50 doctors using about four pages of questions developed based on the professional research literature on doctoring and my personal professional experience working with doctors. The interviews lasted between 30 minutes and two hours. I sat down with the doctor interviewees, one by one. They talked, I typed. They met with me in between patients, taking breaks to answer emails, texts, phone calls, or deal with emergencies, or after hours, on time off, during paperwork time, or while eating a rushed meal. It is also worth mentioning that some of the doctor interviewees experienced their own traumas close to the time of our interview, such as their own illness or that of someone close to them, or the death of a family member or close friend. Several of them experienced the death of their own child. Remarkably, they all kept working, each one saying that helping others helped them to cope with their own pain. After completing the interviews, I am left with an even deeper understanding of the health care crisis. It is my hope that these interviews will expose an intimate portrait of the gravity and urgency of our healthcare crisis. It is with the utmost gratitude, admiration, and humility, that I thank my doctor interviewees for their help with this task.

Do you feel that your doctor doesn't pay attention to what you say? Does your doctor cut you off when you try to explain how you feel? Do you think your doctor could remember your name without referring to your chart? Does your doctor seem to be in such a hurry that you don't even get a chance to ask your most important questions? Do you spend more time waiting than actually talking to your doctor? Do you understand what your doctor says? At one time or another, we have all had these complaints. This book will teach you how to ask the right questions, understand the answers, and show you how to take more control of your visits to the doctor and your own health. This is the first book in which communication pioneer Barbara M. Korsch, M.D., reveals what she has learned about the doctor-patient relationship dilemma during almost half a century of investigation. In clear, simple language, Dr. Korsch answers most of our common questions: How do I know when I'm sick enough to go to the doctor? How do I know if it's serious enough to go to the emergency room? What do I do if I can't follow the advice my doctor gives me? She walks us through a typical visit to the doctor, showing us how to prepare ourselves so we don't forget the question that has been worrying us for weeks as soon as we walk through the doctor's door. She gives important tips on how to survive the dreaded hospital experience. And she offers insight into the doctor's side of the relationship, showing how doctors are trained to be task-oriented and how their natural human sympathy is discouraged throughout their careers. Finally, she offers patients useful strategies for humanizing the relationship. Korsch's helpful, commonsense recommendations are extensively illustrated with real-life doctor-patient conversations which she recorded on audio and video tape over the course of the last thirty years. She was one of the first medical professionals to emphasize the importance of teaching doctors how to talk to patients as part of their medical training. She serves as consultant and lecturer to medical schools, hospitals, and medical practices throughout the world to help the next generation of doctors communicate with their patients. Above all, after years of research, she has found abundant evidence that the relationship patients form with their doctors directly determines the quality of the care they receive. This is a vital book for anyone who is concerned about their health and who wants to take control of their medical care. So much depends upon asking the right questions and on finding a doctor who will listen to you. This book gives you the tools and the confidence to do just that.

Discusses how to avoid harmful medical mistakes, offering advice on such topics as working with a busy doctor, communicating the full story of an illness, evaluating test risks, and obtaining a working diagnosis.

Can refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients lead to better health? Despite modern medicine’s infatuation with high-tech gadgetry, the single most powerful diagnostic tool is the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. However, what patients say and what doctors hear are often two vastly different things. Patients, anxious to convey their symptoms, feel an urgency to “make their case” to their doctors. Doctors, under pressure to be efficient, multitask while patients speak and often miss the key elements. Add in stereotypes, unconscious bias, conflicting agendas, and fear of lawsuits and the risk of misdiagnosis and medical errors multiplies dangerously. Though the gulf between what patients say and what doctors hear is often wide, Dr. Danielle Ofri proves that it doesn’t have to be. Through the powerfully resonant human stories that Dr. Ofri’s writing is renowned for, she explores the high-stakes world of doctor-patient communication that we all must navigate. Reporting on the latest research studies and interviewing scholars, doctors, and patients, Dr. Ofri reveals how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

Ian Blumer looks at the doctor-patient relationship what your doctor will and wont tell you in the examining room.

I Think I Need to Talk to a Doctor tells author Jason Ventre's life story-so far anyway. He shares his history for many reasons, but chief among them is the need to explain his life experiences so that others may try to avoid having them. Diagnosed with bipolar syndrome, he talks honestly about the repercussions of his decisions-mostly bad ones, when considered on a scale from moderate to devastating. He still deals with repercussions from those choices on a daily basis. From describing the funny challenges of childhood and trying to figure out what mattered and what didn't to recalling his failed relationships, Ventre paints an honest picture of a boy who was just different. Rather than trying to change who he was, he just went with whatever he felt-with unforgettable results. Now he takes those results and unapologetically turns them into lessons. Ventre reminds us that we all have pasts full of mistakes; although it might be a great thought to say that we can learn from our past, history has shown us that we're more likely to just "think" that we've learned from our mistakes as we continue to make them. I Think I Need to Talk to a Doctor shows that sometimes laughing at our irrational decisions might be the only way to grow from them and hopefully teach others not to travel down the same road of lost maturity.