David W. Page, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by David W. Page
Texting, emails, videos - why your doctor doesn't know who you are? 1/14/2013 7:41:21 AM
Texting, emails, video clips all convert good stories into information fragments. Your doctor may treat your medical history with the same lack of completion and coherence. You may become just another sound byte in the medical practice's official office records - whether electronic or hand-written. Information fragments dominate our lives. From U 2! to Y not? Sound bytes have replaced coherent stories in the news and in the tales we tell each other. And in the process of speeding up our response to just about everything, the art of telling stories, not the least of which includes your doctor's ability and willingness to listen to and know how to interpret your medical history, is getting trashed. Add to this loss of what we may call 'narrative competence' by doctors, the shrinking of contact time in the clinic with each patient (now fifteen minutes or less, not including double bookings). Your physician may only get a 'fragment' of why you are there in the first place. Too little time. Too little focus on what you're saying. The smartphone mentality.
We're all losing our ability to listen carefully. It's related to the general loss of interest in reading and thinking about what you read. That's why thriller chapters may only be one or two pages long. The writer knows you can't stay with it much longer if you're a Gen Y. Maybe we're all losing our capacity to hear the truth.
So, back to one of my favorite patient advocacy ideas - bring a written copy of your personal medical history with yopu to the doctor's office. And don't be afraid to refocus her on what's bothering you. Her attention may have already drifted off to her iPhone...
