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How to Talk to Your Doctor
- Getting started
- Ways to frame your health concerns
- Questions to ask about tests, screenings, and scans
How to make a decision
Our decision guide will help you learn about your treatment options by considering the medical evidence along with the input
of your family and friends. Then, together with your doctor, decide the best treatment for you given your lifestyle, values,
and preferences when compared with a treatment's risks and benefits.
- Ways to frame your health concerns
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Sure, you love your doctors. But your visits to them might be more rushed than you realize, studies show that your time with your doctor can be as little as 10 minutes per visit.
Prepare an agenda. The average patient gets 10 to 20 minutes with the doctor, according to national physician surveys and direct studies of patient visits. More than half of the doctors we surveyed said they had to see many more patients now than they did five years ago to maintain the same income and that on some days they saw too many patients to spend adequate time with each.
Deciding ahead of time which things you most need to discuss can make the most of your limited time. Almost half of our readers brought a written list of questions and concerns to their doctor visits. Prioritize the three or four issues you most want to talk about, and bring those up first. If you don't have time to get through the whole list, ask whether you can follow up with e-mail. A survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change found that 24 percent of U.S. doctors now exchange e-mail with patients.
Below is a list of questions you can ask to help make the most of the short amount of time you may have with your doctor. "Your doctor should be receptive to the right kinds of questions," says Beth Nash, M.D., who evaluates best treatments for the BMJ Group, publisher of the British Medical Journal. "If not, then you should think about finding a different doctor."
Tests- Why is this test necessary? What will it tell us that we don't already know?
- Will the results significantly alter any treatment plans?
- When will the results be ready? Should I call you for them, or will you call me?
- What is my exact diagnosis? What's the cause of my problem?
- How long will I be sick?
- How long before I'll see improvement?
- Under what conditions should I call you or come back? (Don't feel better in a week? Coughing doesn't stop? Pain becomes worse or spreads?)
- What treatments are used for my condition? Which is best for me, and why?
- What does the research show about this treatment?
- Is there any research on the horizon about treatments for my condition?
- What can I expect from this treatment, based on your experience?
- What are the side effects of this medication? Will it interact with alcohol, caffeine, or other drugs or supplements I take?
- Are there any alternative treatments appropriate for me to try, either before or along with conventional treatment?
- How will these changes help my disorder? How soon should I expect to see an effect?
- How drastic do the changes have to be to produce real results?
- Do you have any tips that would make these changes easier?
