DEAN BICKNELL, CALGARY HERALD, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE, FILE Experts predict a visit to the doctor’s office will become more like a dinner conversation and less like being called to the principal’s office... Says Dr. Ted Epperly, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians and  a family doctor in Boise, Idaho -    The culture of health care already is beginning to shift, with two ideas gaining the most traction; -    One is shared decision-making, where patients receive unbiased “decision aids” and hash out with their primary-care physicians the risks and benefits of various screening or treatment options before proceeding; -    The other is evidence-based medicine, where doctors choose remedies based on what’s proven to work in peer-reviewed studies. and  Marge Ginsburg, Executive director of the Center for Healthcare Decisions, a non-profit group in Sacramento, California: -   But some physicians may need to learn new communication skills to refocus the conversation when patients demand pricey drugs, tests or treatments that are inappropriate for them; -   A lot of it is how you word it, developing an action plan that patients understand; -    Likewise, patients need to stay vigilant and question a doctor if the recommended course of action seems too hasty, invasive or extreme. TO MAKE TOMORROW HAPPIER THAN TODAY ....with Knowledge-based lifestyle requires YOU to take charge of your life and live by the rules and regulations of sciences of DHARm and aayuARvED-vED-vED which operates and sustains life as per the Creator's life design..... This means that YOU need to know, understand and do what your doctor says to cure YOURSELF when YOU get sick....But the important thing is not to live a lifestyle which makes you sick in the first place.....PVAF has published many vED sciences articles in this regard on this web site... Today PVAF publishes the current take on YOU and YOUR DOCTOR... to stay healthy and also have an affordable health care system with your doctor when YOU do get sick....Please click on the next line to read the USA report on the doctor-patient partnering which has been summarized above.....

doctor-patient trust key as health costs rise.... Medical care focus will be on  weeding out wasteful spending, honesty in explaining options, shared decision-making.... From: Edmonton Journal: 7 Aug 2009: Kristen Gerencher, McClatchy Newspapers, San Franscisco Your visits to the doctor are likely to take on a different tone as efforts to stem rapidly rising health-care costs move forward, transforming what often feels like a trip to the principal’s office into something more like an intimate dinner conversation. Much of that conversation will be about not just what treatments and drugs you need, but how much they cost, what they might do for you and whether, in the end, your health will really benefit. It will involve getting back to basics where patients and primary-care doctors establish trusting relationships that last beyond one or two visits, says  Dr. Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a family doctor in Boise, Idaho. “By having the relationship I can help you avoid having these things you don’t need,” he says. “More care in our health-care system is not necessarily better care.” That doesn’t mean patients won’t receive life-saving treatments or cutting-edge technologies to improve their health when such things are warranted. Instead, the focus will be on weeding out wasteful spending in more routine cases where less is at stake. If there’s a history of mutual honesty and transparency, it’s easier to dissuade patients from receiving an expensive drug they have seen advertised on TV or from doing costly imaging or lab work that won’t improve their health, Epperly says. Doctors should be forthcoming about discussing the alternatives, especially when a patient is facing a life-changing diagnosis, he says. “The patient should expect that the physician will share all the options with them — from everything being done to nothing being done.” In exchange, patients should signal that they don’t necessarily want to act on all the possibilities, Epperly says. Such verbal reassurance lets doctors avoid the costly, sometimes harmful, practice of defensive medicine that aims to protect them from lawsuits. “That will help the physician not to default to the natural position of overordering things because it’s easier to do things to people than not do things to people, especially if you’re getting paid to do it.” Overuse of procedures and certain imaging tests actually can lead to poorer health results by needlessly subjecting patients to possible medical errors, hospital-acquired infections or, in the case of increasingly popular CT scans, exposure to a higher lifetime risk of cancer from cumulative radiation. The culture of health care already is beginning to shift, with two ideas gaining the most traction. One is shared decision-making, where patients receive unbiased “decision aids” and hash out with their primary-care physicians the risks and benefits of various screening or treatment options before proceeding. The other is evidence-based medicine, where doctors choose remedies based on what’s proven to work in peer-reviewed studies. In some cases, patients won’t notice a difference in their care because doctors effectively explain the reasons for pursuing a less aggressive approach, such as forgoing an MRI scan for low-back pain unless symptoms change dramatically or no improvement is shown over a period of time, says Marge Ginsburg, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Decisions, a non-profit group in Sacramento, Calif. But some physicians may need to learn new communication skills to refocus the conversation when patients demand pricey drugs, tests or treatments that are inappropriate for them, she says. “A lot of it is how you word it, developing an action plan that patients understand.” Likewise, patients need to stay vigilant and question a doctor if the recommended course of action seems too hasty, invasive or extreme. “It’s not easy to convince people of the likelihood that their doctor may be ordering things that may not have a scientific basis,” Ginsburg says. That’s where patients can benefit from decision aids, comprehensive summaries of the evidence about common medical choices that are free from industry influence, says Lyn Paget, director of communication and outreach for the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making in Boston. “Every patient should really have access to a complete, balanced decision aid to allow them to be well-informed when they make the decision and have a high-level dialogue with their clinicians,” she says. The foundation works with medical groups to integrate these into their practices. Shared decisions often result in higher patient satisfaction, regardless of the outcome. “Most patients, when they are wellinformed, choose very conservatively,” Paget says. “The data has been showing that for quite some time.” Patients increasingly are taking a more active role, says Dr. Diane Rittenhouse, associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. “They’ve gotten a lot of information out in the world and are trying to make sense of it, and the doctor says, ‘Here’s a choice you have, but let’s make that decision together based on ... what your preferences are, where you are in your life and what side-effects’ ” can be expected, Rittenhouse says.

There are 0 additional comments.

Send your news items to be posted to news@prajapati-samaj.ca.

If you have any questions or comments about this web site, send mail to Bhavin Mistry.    
© 1997-2003 Prajaapati Vishva Aashram Foundation.    
Site Design by Helios Logistics Inc.