How to Talk to Your Doctor

How to talk to your doctor

Building a good relationship with your primary care physician-or any doctor who may be giving you care-is a critical component in making sure that you get the care you need and the care that you want. To do so, you're going to want to communicate effective with your doctor and that includes asking the right questions and maximizing the time you have with your doctor. Remember, doctors are busy people, but the time you've reserved is your time and you should use it wisely. Here are a few tips on how to establish a great back-and-forth with your doctor.


Bring a Buddy

Establishing good communication with your doctor might need a third party. Patients stuck with uncommunicative doctors have been shown to get much better results when they took active steps such as taking a friend or relative along on the visit or asking doctors directly about their experience treating similar cases.


Speak frankly

Doctors say they often encounter patients who are reluctant or embarrassed to talk about their symptoms. That makes the doctor's job a lot harder, said Howard Beckman, M.D., a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Rochester who has done extensive research on doctor-patient interactions.

By the same token, you can't always count on doctors to ask the right questions. Of patients who said their preventive-care doctors were aware of their issues, only a small percentage says it was because the doctors had asked them directly about it.

Not only should your doctor know what symptoms are bothering you, but "patients should also be as honest as possible about what they think may be causing the problem," Beckman said. If you fear your headaches indicate a brain tumor or an impending aneurysm, sharing those concerns could help. If the things you fear are outside the realm of possibility, the doctor can tell you so and save you a lot of stress; if not, voicing your gut instincts may lead to tests the doctor otherwise might not have ordered, and even a lifesaving early diagnosis.

Speaking up extends to asking for things you want from the doctor. In a study of patient visits with 45 physicians, patients who left with unvoiced desires--such as a referral to a specialist, medical equipment, or a different medication--were unhappier with their doctor and recovered more slowly than patients who made their desires known. Physicians, too, rated those encounters as more demanding.