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Sunday, October 15, 2017

Listening to Your Patients

Could virtual assistants act as a means to start efficient dialog with patients?  Consider the patient interaction to be three-way.  An assistant starts the interaction,  to establish basic facts, fears, directions.  Suggests how the patient can learn about what should be the next steps.  Constructs a knowledge graph personalized to the needs of the patient.   Then the doctor (or health professional) is added to the conversation to augment the details .... schedule procedures, add research results, etc.

Making Time to Really Listen to Your Patients
Rana L.A. Awdish, Leonard L. Berry

Modern medicine’s true healing potential depends on a resource that is being systematically depleted: the time and capacity to truly listen to patients, hear their stories, and learn not only what’s the matter with them but also what matters to them. Some health professionals claim that workload and other factors have compressed medical encounters to a point that genuine conversation with patients is no longer possible or practical. We disagree.

Our experiences — as a critical-care physician whose own critical illness led her to train physicians in relationship-centered communication (Rana Awdish) and as a health services researcher who has interviewed and observed hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses (Len Berry) — teach us that hurried care incurs hidden costs and offers false economy. In other words, it might save money in the short term but wastes money over time. .... " 

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