Make the patients do all the work !

Doctors are always complaining about how busy they are and about how many patients they have to see every day.

Here's a simple solution - make patients do more work !

Patients can be very smart - and they can often do a better job at educating other patients, for example. Not only are their concepts clearer , they are much more patient-centric and use language which is easier to understand, because it is not burdened with medical jargon.

Patients can develop many clever tools, which we can then use to treat other patients !

For example, when I give patients their IVF treatment plan, I write this down - and then ask them to email me what they will do , in their own words , so I am sure they have understood it properly. One patient created a very clever spreadsheet for herself. I requested her to adapt this, and we now use this for all our patients ! They just have to enter their LMP and they get a customised daily treatment plan which spells out what's going to happen on each day. This helps them become better organised ; saves me time; and reduces errors and confusion.

If you are a busy doctor and have lots of patients , please learn to make good use of them ! They are a very inexpensive resource ! For example, they can help you search the internet; or help you design patient education brochures in their local language.

Remember, patients are not just consumers - they are the largest untapped pool of healthcare providers. They act as primary healthcare providers for themselves - why not tap into their intelligence to help them provide better health care tools for other patients as well ?