How important is the patient-doctor relationship?

Despite advances in technology, the patient-doctor relationship remains important says Daniel Kraft, MD. Learn about the mutually beneficial relationship most patients have with their physician.

Transcript

00:00

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.

00:07

And in the old Marcus Welby days, that relationship can be quite therapeutic, just like the placebo effect in some cases can be.

00:15

[MUSIC PLAYING] I think most of us who go into medicine, whether it's

00:24

physicians or beyond, you know, we have, in general, a desire to want to help people and often like combining that

00:30

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

00:37

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.

00:44

I don't think we should underestimate the power of that relationship in instigating change and optimism and in the face of disease.

00:53

So I think the patient-doctor relationship is critical. I think is being squished by some of the demands in certain fields.

01:00

And in some cases, the technology gets in the way-- electronic medical records and other elements that keep the physician buried in their chart

01:08

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

01:15

and be having FaceTime, in a sense, real facetime. And then telemedicine, which is another element that's evolving very quickly, can, I think,

01:22

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

01:30

of private Skype-type session, I think it can, again, play an important role, particularly for ongoing diseases, which need sort

01:37

of intermittent management. [AUDIO LOGO]