Empower patients to take an active role in their care by interpreting medical reports

Whenever I see a patient for the first time in my specialty infertility clinic, I ask her to bring her records with her and to interpret her own medical reports. This gives me a good sense of how much the patient understands about her medical problem and treatment options.

“I think doctors get the patients they deserve, and patients get the doctors they deserve.”
-Aniruddha Malpani, MD, medical director of Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai, India

However, many times patients look completely blank and are have no idea what the information contained in the report means. Some patients even become uneasy that a doctor is asking them to do this. After all, isn't it the doctor’s job to...