How important is the patient-doctor relationship?
Despite advances in technology, the patient-doctor relationship remains important says HealthMaker and inventor Daniel Kraft, MD. In this video, he talks about the mutually beneficial relationship most patients have with their physician.
Transcript
So the relationship I think is really critical, and there's even several studies to show, just that patient-doctor relationship, many patients do things for their doctor.
And in the old Marcus Welby days, that relationship can be quite therapeutic, just like the placebo effect in some cases can be.
[MUSIC PLAYING] I think most of us who go into medicine, whether it's
physicians or beyond, you know, we have, in general, a desire to want to help people and often like combining that
with science. And medicine can be an amazing career. And what jazzes a lot of people, including myself, is those times you really touch someone's life
and get a chance to really make a difference and have those relationships, sometimes acutely and sometimes over a long period of time, like in oncology.
I don't think we should underestimate the power of that relationship in instigating change and optimism and in the face of disease.
So I think the patient-doctor relationship is critical. I think is being squished by some of the demands in certain fields.
And in some cases, the technology gets in the way-- electronic medical records and other elements that keep the physician buried in their chart
and not necessarily interacting. It can also go in the other direction, with smart design, maybe even using Google Glass. You'll have better ways to interact
and be having FaceTime, in a sense, real facetime. And then telemedicine, which is another element that's evolving very quickly, can, I think,
enable certain touch points. I mean, once you have that relationship and Doctor Kraft touches in with you once or twice a week, even if it's a text or a quick sort
of private Skype-type session, I think it can, again, play an important role, particularly for ongoing diseases, which need sort
of intermittent management. [AUDIO LOGO]
health care
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