PRACTICE PARTNER
Communication Lessons
from a TV Doctor
DOC TALK
By Stuart Foxman
E
ver play charades or
Pictionary? You get the
answer, and start to act
or draw it out for your
partner. It seems obvious, but your
partner can’t guess it. So you just
keep repeating the same clues until
the time runs out.
That, writes one doctor, is a com-
mon issue when talking to patients.
He calls it the curse of knowledge.
You have all this data and informa-
tion in your head, but aren’t convey-
ing it in a way that’s easily compre-
hensible. Maybe you don’t see it
from the patient’s point of view. So
you’re not on the same wavelength.
What if you could do one thing
that guaranteed better outcomes for
your patients? This doctor thinks
about that a lot. There is a cure-
all, he suggests. It’s not exclusively
a medical skill, but the simple act
of communicating better: listen-
ing, showing empathy, getting the
patient’s perspective and ensuring
mutual understanding.
That’s what Alan Alda thinks.
Okay, he isn’t a real doctor – but he
played one on TV. Can a fictional
ISSUE 2, 2019 DIALOGUE
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