How can you encourage a physician to take a more proactive approach to patient care?

As a private case manager I have attended hundreds, if not thousands, of medical appointments with client. My role is listen, take notes, and ask questions. I find that when a patient has an advocate, especially one who works in "the business," the health care providers take more time spend more time listening and really HEARING their patients concerns and are more willing to be creative and have a conversation. Without an advocate my clients report that they have experienced ageism, and sometimes even arrogance, with the takeaway being the providers "way or the highway."

As a longevity physician and founder of a health tech company, I believe that we can promote proactive healthcare by emphasising the long-term benefits for patients, such as early diagnosis of potential problems, personalised preventive strategies, and improved overall well-being. Sharing success stories, case studies, and research that support the effectiveness of proactive approaches can also enhance patient outcomes. That said, I would add a caveat that this is time-intensive and not all doctors have the bandwidth to provide this kind of experience. In such cases, digital tools and dashboards can act as a ‘second brain’ for doctors. Human Edge is actively building this kind of technology to support physicians and clinical health experts!

Encouraging proactive patient care among physicians involves understanding their challenges – heavy workloads and time constraints. Introduce user-friendly tools to streamline administrative tasks and provide easily accessible educational opportunities to keep them updated on healthcare advancements. Showcase the impact of preventive care through success stories and statistics. Foster a collaborative environment, emphasizing teamwork and open communication, to create a sense of shared responsibility for patient outcomes. Implement feedback loops to empower physicians and inspire a mindset shift toward proactive healthcare practice. Recognizing their expertise and addressing this challenges will motivate a proactive approach in patient care.

In order to provide necessary feedback to a patient, the physician must know the history and concerns of the patient. Physician-patient communication enables the patient to take a proactive approach in their helping process to better health. Physicians need to follow-up with their patients to ensure that they are recovering well in order to prevent further hospitalizations and injuries. Appropriate dialogue should occur between the health care professionals and a multidisciplinary approach should be taken to inform all health care team members of the necessary action needed for optimum health care needs to be met. When physicians know and anticipate the needs of their patient, better outcomes and healthcare delivery systems are implemented.

It is important to understand the perspective of physicians to best recommend changes that they may consider. You also want to understand what may work best for them according to their needs and wants.

After spending some time with the providers, it is important to share your insight or feedback from your perspective. This can further contribute to building a trusting relationship.

Fostering trust with physicians is essential for promoting proactive patient care. Articulate shared goals such as preventing complications and enhancing satisfaction. Set measurable objectives for progress tracking. Foster a two-way dialogue, inviting physicians to express expectations. Integrating advanced technology, from predictive analytics to telemedicine, streamlines communication. In this collaborative ecosystem, the focus is on empowering everyone involved to achieve excellence in patient care.

During a team meeting, present compelling data showing how preventive measures can significantly reduce the incidence of chronic diseases. Propose integrating a patient education program that focuses on lifestyle changes, and suggest adopting new diagnostic tools that facilitate early detection. Highlight success stories from other practices that have embraced a proactive approach, demonstrating improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. Offer to collaborate on developing a comprehensive care plan that prioritizes prevention and patient empowerment, ensuring that the physician has the support needed to implement these strategies effectively.

Aligning the goals is important to ensure the teamwork. Patient and physician need to be partners and working on the same goal. If your goal is to foster healthy lifestyle, ask specific ways you can change. Everyone knows eating healthy is important and anyone can recommend that. Ask what tools are out there. In what specific ways can the doctor help? Is there a way to have more check-ins? Is there a program that can work for your specific needs? This way, both parties are motivated to probe more. Open ended questions can lead to better thoughts and answers, leading to fruitful conversations.

Physicians should discuss similar cases involving different patients, helping to build the patient's confidence in the treatment protocol. This reinforces the idea that the patient is not alone, and there are many individuals who have successfully been treated for similar issues by the doctor.

In urging physicians toward a proactive patient care approach, compelling evidence and actionable solutions are paramount. Present studies showcasing the positive impacts of early interventions, serving as a motivator for change. Technological integration, such as user-friendly electronic health records (EHRs) and AI-driven tools, enhances data accessibility for prompt, informed decision-making. Ongoing education ensures physicians stay abreast of medical advancements and proactive care strategies, while patient engagement platforms foster collaboration. To address time constraints, streamline administrative tasks and optimize scheduling systems, freeing up bandwidth for proactive patient care.

I think digital health solutions are perfect for this topic, to teach skills and save time. Listen first what are their needs, then you can offer a proper solution. If they complain they have little time for the patient because too much filling of papers. For quality they are needed but AI tools can improve time.

Many will offer digital solutions out there. Be sure they work! And be willing to support and troubleshoot! I have seen too many times they don’t work, don’t get followed up, patients get lost…and don’t just send a link. Ensure there is a human touch for the reasons mentioned above. Be intentional on where the education is offered in case patients and caregivers have questions so they can be answered right away. And what about patients with language and cultural barriers? Often they are lost as default. Don’t confuse them with the digital solutions if they are not customized in their languages. Another reason why someone from the staff needs to be there to support patients and caregivers right there then. Digital solutions ≠ human touch

There are so much innovation and breakthrough research in oncology. Therefore, it is more challenging for any oncology pharmacist to seek feedback and collaboration with physicians to take more proactive approach for all cancer patients. That emphasizes the importance of collaboration, evidence-based practice, and patient-centered care. We can highlight the benefits of proactive interventions, such as early detection, personalized medicine, and targeted therapies. We foster open communication and collaboration between pharmacists and physicians through case discussions, and interdisciplinary rounds and emphasize our role as a valuable resource for medication management to improve overall outcomes for patient performance.

The many years of being a nurse I have taught by example as well as asked the physician for suggestions that would help in the patients care. Many times by my including the DR in on the patients care it offers them a guide to what the patient actually needs.

This needs to be both ways. I have heard too many stories patients’ opinions and perspectives are ignored or dismissed. How can patients not be defensive in this case? However, having the mindset that your physician is a team member that you need to persuade can shift the dynamic.

Regularly follow up on implemented changes and recognize the physician's efforts and achievements in adopting a more proactive approach. Positive reinforcement can motivate sustained change.

Follow ups and feedbacks are an important components to encourage and boost physicians perfromance but important thing is we as physician ahve to make possible efforts to maintain th e follow ups of the patients. Thats why I created a platform exclusively for diabetes patients where follow ups are automatized in the form of alerts and reminders. For feedbacks from patients can not be forced but it is the reflex action of how we as physician treat them.

In my point of view follow up is the most important thing in our practice not only for the sake of the patient but also it help doctor to self estimate his diagnosis and treatment to avoid any misdiagnosis afterwards

Following up is an important part of creating sustainable change. Once identifying opportunities for improvement, it is important to implement them and then follow up to see if the intervention was successful or if additional changes are necessary.

As the patient’s advocate it is my job to provide information to both physician and patient. This requires educating the patient on what the Doctor has planned as well as expectations they have set as a minimum. Some plans are guidelines to follow and others are strict protocols. I get my patients to agree to follow directions BEFORE I contact the provider with the update that he/she will be doing our part of the plan as stipulated. This increases trust and assurance and helps develop the doctor patient relationship.

During the repeat visit, a physician must review their notes before attending to the patient. This helps them understand the previous discussions, challenges, treatment offered, and analyze the present situation. Many doctors may project that they are busy and rely solely on patient feedback, which may not always be medically relevant or may present new challenges, leading to the oversight of previous issues

Owning up your part of the interaction and the story is important. If you want your physician to be open and honest, you need to be open and honest as well. I know patients and caregivers may feel guilt and shame, for not taking the medications regularly, for example. However, this can create a dangerous situation if not carefully handled, like increasing doses of medications before any trial. It is ok to admit what happened. If your physician suggests something and you know you cannot commit or change, then you need to share that honestly.

Understand that change takes time and persistence. Be prepared to face resistance and setbacks. Continuous education, support, and patience are key in facilitating long-term change.

If you want a physician to be proactive, you can't overburden them with unreasonable metric-based expectations that don't leave time for them to keep their head comfortably above water and have the headspace to proactively address said concerns. Furthermore, you need to truly invest in their support staff to be able to manage the overall work flow in this team-based atmosphere.

Embrace the crucial importance or writing everything, in the EHR, EDR or EMR. Some forgot a lot, and the information is so vital, for the patient and the treatment and for legal aspects. Embrace to not forget consent, the sharing decision with the patient is important. And patients value that a lot. Embrace prevention, when you take 30% of your time or 20% if you like to follow Pareto principle, for doing prevention. If you are taking care in a proactive way, you will see engagement of the patient and better outcomes in long term.