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Patients = People
Why is it that some of life’s biggest “no-brainers” are often not obvious to the people they effect most? In this case I’m thinking of professionals in the healthcare industry, who talk about “patients” with a strange kind of distance, as if they themselves didn’t have health issues and need to see doctors sometimes — as if we folks with chronic illness were fundamentally of one single, stubborn mind. We’re just people like you, for goodness’ sake!
Please take a read of my latest Straight Up column over at dLife, called “Patients = People,” and let me know if you agree.
On a related note, during a little chat over lunch at the recent Project HealthDesign conference, a certain healthcare professional was explaining to me: “We were trying to organize this conference where we’d educate the medical engineers about getting together with effected patients to discuss their design ideas, and the engineers said, ‘Why would we want to do that?‘”
My mouth (full of salad) just dropped open, is all. Because it appears to me that soliciting feedback on medical devices from the actual people who will buy and use them is so vital — and such a basic business requirement — that I had been just about to ask her, “Why do you even need a special conference on THAT?“
Explore posts in the same categories: Diabetes Essentials, Health 2.0
Amy,
As usual, you hit the nail on the head. (Sometimes it is the doctor that needs to be hit on the head). This gist of Patient’s = people is so obvious but so many doctors fail to realize and contemplate the point. It’s a disconnect. Thanks for pointing it out.
Posted by: Sara My | October 8th, 2008 at 8:37 amDiabetes isn’t that big of a show stopper. If you manage your body and pay attention then life will continue as normal
Posted by: Nate | October 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pmThe disconnect between patients and healthcare providers is the biggest frustration about dealing with health issues. Many times they are so condescending and often scold patients in such a way that it makes the patient feel like they have done something wrong on purpose to make themselves get sick. I had a former doctor who decided that I was a lazy couch potatoe when she did not have any idea about what I did each day to earn a living. I was holding down two full time jobs and worked part time on weekends to help my single daughter who was fighting two types of cancer pay her bills. It was during this time that I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and I believe that stress played a partial role. Needless to say she is not longer my physician.
Posted by: Pruin | October 8th, 2008 at 5:15 pmThe failure to consider the point of view of patients, and the fact that we are ALL patients, in some way, is a very, very big problem. While it is shocking, it’s very prevalent. I have been amazed by the disconnect in the medical profession. I am speaking here as both a patient and a future health care provider.
All I can say is that doctors are overworked and overwhelmed and I blame the horrible health care system in this country. Insurance companies should not be for-profit institutions because it is always in their interest to cut reimbursements to doctors, and deny patients care and treatments. There is too much focus on turning astronomical profits, in all aspects of health care, and it is incredibly corrupting.
Doctors are under a ton of pressure to practice cattle-car medicine and they wind up becoming distant and hard to reach; increasingly they see patients as “whiners” and drains on their time.
I’ve worked for doctors who, when a patient began to cry in their office for a legitimate reason, bolted from the room and asked me to give the patient the number of a psychiatrist. The doctor could have offered the patient a Kleenex and said “How can I help?,” but they felt it would back up their entire appointment schedule and be unfair to the other 20 people in the waiting room. I understand the stress physicians feel, their job is not easy. But I also think it’s important to remember that medicine is about PEOPLE, not diseases that exist in a vacuum.
In my opinion the key is to break the stranglehold insurance companies have on medicine, and allow physicians to do what they are trained to do: take care of people, without the pressure to “treat ‘em and street ‘em.” As patients, we also have to be our own best advocates, and make it clear that we won’t accept the harmful, outrageous trends in the health care field.
Posted by: Lauren | October 8th, 2008 at 7:08 pmGood point. I agree with you.
Doctors are people, too, and unfortunately there are good ones and not so good ones. Engineers, on the other hand… (j/k)
Posted by: Emily Downward | October 10th, 2008 at 8:53 am