Get superior advice by taking notes

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Successfully communicating your health condition to your doctor is of supreme significance when it comes to receiving accurate treatment and diagnosis.

Here are several tips for improving your patient-doctor communication. Always go to your visit armed with your most important questions, and have a concise agenda for the visit. Take on a more direct role to avoid receiving information outside the parameters of your concerns. Doing so virtually insures the chances that all of your questions will get addressed.

Always start out with a declarative statement such as “I need to recognize what is happening , and what my questions should be” to set the tone. Another technique that I use to enhance my relationship with my Doctor is to take notes or record our conversations.

We'd all like to think that the Doctors we're paying for advice would offer quality advice no matter what, but if you really want the best advice, bring a moleskin and start taking notes. This is a technique known as "the Moleskine effect."

The very act of taking notes in front your Doctor (or anyone for that matter) encourages them to give you better information, and more time with them. Many times lately I have pulled out my trusty moleskine, and began taking notes in front of my Doctor.Each, and every time I had been given web references, ideas, and tips.

In one particular session, my Yorkie's vet spent an extra 30 minutes discussing its health strategies. I can't be sure that this is a real cause-and-effect pattern, but I do know that it works. I believe that when the moleskine is brought out, it is a signal to the doctor that you are someone who will pursue the advice that's given, and sets up an honorable circle of trust.
So, while in the perfect scenario we'd all like to get the best advice all of the time, the sad fact is that our world is far from perfect, and that Doctors are only human beings.

It's always easier to offer a hurried answer to anyone who's asked you a question, but if that individual takes out a notepad and appears to be truly interested in the answer, you will be inclined to be more willing to offer as much accurate information as you possibly can. Have you yourself ever noticed a related effect whether you were the person answering, or asking a question?

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