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Patient Empowerment is a Dangerous Euphemism
How to end the patient-physician power struggle and become a world-class patient.
It gnaws at you like a rodent, the nagging suspicion that your physician has missed something. The physical exam was rushed and the interview was abruptly halted. Your anxiety grows as your physician retreats behind the computer and its unintelligible charts and graphs. No one knows your body and how you’re feeling like you do. You’ve done your homework. You know there’s more to these symptoms than what’s been discussed and the consequences are dire if they’re misdiagnosed.
Such is the feeling of disempowerment. And if you’re advocating for your child or a loved one, these concerns can boil over to a full blown panic. No question, you have the moral high ground to do something about it. But I want to explain why you shouldn’t, at least not in the way these matters are typically negotiated.
Let me surface my bias immediately. My wife Deana and I have many inspiring, heroic, and yes, haunting memories of the last 16-years, advocating for the needs of our son. It’s hard to speak of the fragility of these things in academic terms when you’ve seen your child’s heart beating through an open cavity in his chest. In a very literal and serious way, our lives are in the hands of our healthcare…
