Checklists for IVF patients

Atul Gawande's book, Checklist , highlighted how important it is for doctors to routinely start using simple checklists in order to prevent errors.

Checklists are equally important for patients !

How do you select a good doctor ? the right hospital ? the right treatment ? We all use checklists, but do this informally and intuitively most the time.

It's helpful to make this explicit, to ensure that you have covered all the important variables.

We have created an online checklist for IVF patients at http://www.drmalpani.com/IVFCycleModule/IVFCycle.php, to help empower infertile couples, so that they can make sure they get the best medical care and are treated as respected partners in their treatment.

This checklist helps doctors as well, because well- informed patients will take better care of themselves. It's important that you be your own advocate during your medical treatment - and if you know what to expect, you will be in control of your IVF treatment cycle !