Effective partnerships with health professionals involve mutual respect and understanding, being informed, asking questions, open discussion and participation in all decisions.

Health professionals should welcome their patients to show an open interest in understanding and managing their conditions and want to participate in decision making to get the best outcome.

The most effective health care partnerships usually involve:

1. Having an active interest in your health and knowing about your health condition
2. Finding a doctor who you feel comfortable and can communicate with
3. Being well prepared for appointments, e.g. being on time, knowing what you want, questions to ask.
4. Taking time to explore options and when making decisions and being open to sourcing a second opinion.

Choosing a doctor

There is more to choosing a doctor than you think.

Unfortunately, due to geographical location, it is not possible for some people to see a doctor of their choice. However, with advances in telemedicine, some specialists are now doing follow up consultations online after an initial face to face consultation.

Click Here to hear Associate Professor Cecilie Lander talk about a few of the things you need to consider when choosing a Doctor.

Developing a partnership

We all have our own learning and communication styles and it is important for you to help guide the doctor in providing the information in a way you can absorb and understand it.

Think about how you learn best, do you prefer:

1. having things drawn and explained
2. hearing stories to illustrate the point
3. listening to detailed descriptions
4. to discuss the options
5. do your own research with specific search terms or websites or
6. a combination of these learning styles.

Understanding your learning style will help you adapt your questions and guide the doctor in how the information is communicated.

Preparing for appointments

It is not unusual to have an appointment with your doctor and find that your questions have not been answered or you completely forgot to ask them.

In order to get the most out of your limited time with your doctor, it is worth putting in the time to prepare. Think of it as a business meeting and prepare an ‘agenda’.

1. Write a list of questions and add to this list as new questions come to mind.
2. Keep a diary of any ‘events’ or seizures that may have occurred and take this to your appointment.
3. A day or two before your appointment, review the list and prioritise the questions from 1-10. Your doctor has a limited time and realistically will not be able to answer all your questions. If you do have a lot of questions, try to book a longer appointment.
4. Prepare and practice giving a clear medical history, starting with why you are seeing the doctor, what happened and when it happened. Then outline any signs and symptoms you may have been experiencing that you think are related and how long they have been happening. List any other health conditions you have plus all medications or treatments you are using.
5. The doctor will ask for more information if needed, so avoid going off on a tangent with too much detail unless asked for it.
6. It is important to be completely honest with your doctor as they can only make decisions and changes to treatment based on the information you do or do not give them. Anything you say to your doctor is confidential. If you are struggling to remember to take the medication three times a day, let them know that you miss doses and why it is difficult. This will help with finding an ideal medication regime that suits you and your lifestyle. Remember this should be a team effort and the doctor cannot predict all the challenges you may face. If you say nothing the doctor will assume you agree with what is proposed.
7. Make sure you ask the doctor to clarify what your diagnosis is, or if there is no clear diagnosis what they think the most likely diagnoses are and how this is going to be narrowed down and over what time. If tests are ordered ask the doctor to explain what the tests may or may not show and how much they may cost.
8. If you have a clear diagnosis, ask what the next steps are in the treatment plan and what it may mean for the future, how will it impact on your ability to drive, work, study, safety aspects you need to be aware of and potential risk factors for injury or loss of life.

Seeking second opinions

Many people are hesitant to seek a second opinion and worry how their current treating doctor will react.

Click Here to listen to Dr Dan MacLaughlin,  Epileptologist, discuss how and why to seek second opinions.

You may also like to read the article Seeking a Second Opinion in the Epilepsy 360˚ Magazine.