How you can teach patients to ask good questions

As busy doctors, it’s easy to feel sometimes as if there isn’t a lot of extra time for questions. However, it’s important to encourage patients to ask questions, because the process allows them to understand exactly what their problem is and what their treatment options are, so they have realistic expectations about what your treatment plan is and what you can do for them.

 “The truth is that the quality of the doctor’s answers depends on the quality of the patient's questions.”
-Aniruddha Malpani, MD, medical director of Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai, India

Unfortunately, sometimes patients ask such poor quality questions that it can be difficult to provide intelligent answers. This is why doctors sometimes get so frustrated by patients who bring to their appointments lists of dozens of questions, and expect the doctor to answer all of them. The truth is that the quality of the doctor’s answers depends on the quality of the patient's questions. The problem is that many patients are not...