Connect

|| Hari Om || || Shree Ram || || Ambadnya || || Naathsamvidh || 

I have written this based on  my experiences over two years of residency. This article was awarded the 1st Place in the online competition- Innovative Ideas in "Ascension 2019", a conference on Medical Humanities, at Seth. G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital.

Connect 

A disclaimer: this may not be what you were expecting. This is an idea, a feeling that has grown over two years of residency, born from a thousand moments and fragments of memories and feelings. There is enough innovation ongoing in the science of Medicine, this is a thought from the Art of Medicine.

Consider this less of an innovation, and more of a renovation.

The idea is fairly simple, and nothing very new. What I am proposing is simply restructuring an existing system. So : “Connect”. A social network with a twist. A social network for patients and their relatives to interact with their treating doctors. A platform for the Doctor to get to know the people they are treating better. Simple.

Now, to get to the thought process behind this. Currently, there has been a lot of discussion about the shaky nature of the doctor-patient relationship and the conflict that stems thereof.

I feel that one of the major reasons behind this is that just as Doctors tend to visualize

patients as a group of symptoms rather than a person, the relatives tend to visualize the treating Physician as a cold-hearted harbinger of bad news, who is cruelly reminding them that thei

loved one is ill and may not make it.

Neither side is right, neither side is wrong.

 

What is unsaid here is what stands between the two parties like a wall of glass. The Doctor has not seen the patient as the happy member of a loving family, a father, brother, mother sister, spouse or sibling, perhaps the soul and spirit of the home in their health. He treats the person who is ill, tries to keep the relatives well informed about the nature of the disease and tries to be as objective as possible.

This objectivity is not coldness, it a survival mechanism. It is a way to stay afloat and avoid being swept away in a tide of emotions. But, very often, the Doctor with the stoic façade is silently shedding tears inside, and not showing those tears is perhaps one of the greatest sacrifices we make as Doctors.

I know the tears that I have shed, both in joy and sorrow.

The incident that comes most prominently to mind, is when a Doctor had the privilege of extubating a lady who had been ventilator-dependent for 45 days. Shortly after that, she was visited by her young children. I think the Doctor cried more than the relatives that day.

His tears did not go unnoticed, and they remain in touch to this day.

The reason I am quoting this incident is that I feel this “social network” will help patients and their relatives understand that the person treating them is no machine, no deity, but a flawed and simple human being just like them.

And the treating physician will get a better idea of what his patient was and what restoring that life means to so many people. I have the seen CPR being performed with twice as much intensity because a child was clinging on to the hand of the one who had collapsed. Simple things, but they go a very long way!

These stories are often shared on existing social media as anecdotes, but in the turbulent ocean that is the internet, they are unable to bridge the divide as they should.

Thus, I am looking to create a sheltered Social network with just the healthcare workers and their patients, both current as well as past. A place for them to show to each other the people they are. Not Doctor. Not Patient. Person.

Here, they can share anything that they choose about themselves. The only filter that I would like to place is that there will be no Online consultations, something that most practitioners dread! Also, any negative comments from either side should never mention names. We are here to grow together, not to hurt. There will be problems and mistakes, but that is what makes us human.

I was pleasantly surprised when a patient’s relative asked me whether I play the violin. He had looked me up on Facebook! Then we had a conversation. A real conversation, as people. And on that foundation, the consultation continued.

From a Doctor’s point of view, I can vouch for the fact that nothing beats the feeling of seeing your patient getting better. This is the feeling that needs to be shared not just with our colleagues, but also with our patients. 

Let the doctor know more about the PERSON he is treating, let the patient know more about the Doctor as a PERSON.

 At the end of the day, we are people treating people. As simple as that. The pedestal that was once privilege for a Doctor now just makes us an easy target. Its time to step down and walk among the crowd.

This is my idea: the simple use of existing internet infrastructure to increase the “ Connect” between us. Upon admission, the patients and relatives have access to the Profiles of their treating team, as well as to stories posted by the Care-givers and their former patients.

They get to know more about the people looking after them. They are encouraged to share stories about the patients in health as well as in disease. They get to see that their Care-giver is also a person, the much loved child of some simple family who is now toiling day and night to keep their loved ones healthy. A person with dreams, hobbies, talents a aspirations. Just like them.

And as the conversations grow, the barriers melt away by themselves.

I hope that this innovation will help reshape the future of the Doctor-Patient relationship.

It will help restore the Human touch. We are here to touch lives, and the lives we have touched will stay with us forever, also shining as a beacon to other lost souls.

At the end of the day we will realize that whoever we are; Doctor, Patient, ill or healthy;  we are not so different. It is when we realize this, that we will truly connect.

-Dr. Arnav H. Tongaonkar

Resident Doctor, Internal Medicine

 Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital

My older blog posts are listed at the top of the page.
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|| Hari Om || || Shree Ram || || Ambadnya || || Naathsamvidh ||