Last week I attended a conference focused on patient literacy, empowerment, and education. Among the conference attendees were doctors, researchers, educators, and advocates.

The overriding theme was that most doctors aren’t doing enough to help us patients understand our medical conditions, nor are they helping us make the right decisions for ourselves. The results are patients who, due to lack of understanding, just don’t heal or get well the way they could or should. In extreme cases, this may lead to errors which lead to permanent harm or death – simply due to poor communication.

We’re not talking about bedside manner here. We’re talking about risk – the risk of patients who haven’t been to medical school and need to be taught to understand their problems and treatments. As your friendly patient advocate, I was pleased to see medical professionals beginning to understand that sometimes teaching is as much their role as diagnosing and treating.

Suggestions for communications were plentiful. From developing educational materials, to making sure interpreters are available for people with poor English skills, the overriding theme was improving communication with patients, no matter what language they speak, or how well they read. It was at once eye-opening, informative, and downright scary.

One important discussion was the fact that many patients feel intimidated by doctors and freeze when it comes time to ask questions. One speaker suggested that it’s impossible to ask an intelligent question of a fully-clothed doctor when we are sitting naked on an examination table, covered only with a thin sheet! We’ve all been there.

A simple tool was discussed that is worth sharing with you. It’s called "Ask Me 3" and it’s a series of three questions you should always use when you visit your doctor for a medical problem.

Question one is simply, "what is my main problem?" It gets to the heart of your diagnosis and helps you understand what you’ve got.

Question two is: "What do I need to do about it?" Your doctor’s response will outline your treatment options and prepare you to learn more about them.

Question three is: "Why do I need to do that?" This will help break down each treatment option into its benefits and components and will help you make the treatment decision that works best for you.

Next column, I’ll share more of what I learned at the conference that can help you. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about Ask Me 3, check out their website: http://www.npsf.org/askme3/.

©  2006 Trisha Torrey

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