Hi! I'm Missy Creed, the librarian at the Library for Health Information, or the LHI.
The LHI is a consumer health library, located in the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, in
Columbus, Ohio. The LHI provides free, reliable, easy-to-understand health resources for medical
patients, their families, and the community. Medical center clinicians can refer patients
to the LHI if patients are interested in finding more information on their own, about their
health diagnoses. So, August is National Talk To Your Doctor Month, and even though it might
seem like an easy thing for some of us to do, lots of people struggle with how to have
a conversation with their doctor. Today, we're chatting with a doctor from the Wexner Medical
Center about how talking to your doctor can benefit your health, as well as some tips
for preparing for a doctor's appointment. Let's start with an introduction. Dr. Sheikh,
could you introduce yourself, and tell us, maybe, an interesting fact about yourself?
Hi! I'm Selim Sheikh. I'm a family physician with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical
Center. An interesting fact is that I'm a super-hero nerd. Great! We have a superhero
nerd. That's wonderful. Thanks so much. Let's start with a basic question: why is it so
important to talk to your doctor? So, I think it's so important just because there are a
lot of times when there might be something that you're going through health-wise that
you might not realize is affecting your life. And just talking about your doctor can open
up doors to to figure out ways that you could potentially improve the quality of life. Thank
you. In preparing for this conversation, I read through the National Institutes of Health
booklet, Talking with Your Doctor, A Guide for Older People. It's a great resource for
really anyone preparing for a doctor's visit. So people might be wondering, what are some
good questions I can ask my doctor? Good basic questions to start off with are, if you have
been given any medical diagnoses in the past to ask about what those things mean, if that's
something you need to act on at the current time. I would say specific to the pandemic,
definitely I imagine things might have been delayed in terms of your routine care. And
just to check in and see if there's anything that you should take charge up now, just because
you shouldn't wait for the pandemic to be over to take care of yourself. Great. That
leads me into my next question. Let's talk about in-person visits. But let's also talk
about telehealth visits or virtual visits, because a lot of doctors are doing virtual
visits right now. Telemedicine is a great option that has sort of accelerated itself
during the the pandemic, and basically it's video chatting with a doctor. Of course, there
are limitations in terms of the obvious that you can't do a regular physical exam through
video. But at the same time, you could still ask whatever questions you have. As far as
in-person visits, things have definitely changed with what you're probably used to prior to
the pandemic, in the sense that you might be screened with some questions when you're,
when you get to the doctor's office, just in terms of any symptoms you might be having.
You'll probably have your temperature taken and your doctor will be wearing personal protective
equipment as well. Great. Those are some great tips to ease some tension during COVID-19.
What if folks don't have a doctor that they regularly visit and they need to find a doctor?
How would someone go about finding a doctor? The Wexner Medical Center has developed a
few different options that have come up throughout the pandemic to help with this. One has been
the Telehealth Immediate Care Center. It's a great option for patients who don't have
a primary care doctor where they can get immediate telehealth care, same day. And then as far
as if you wanted to establish with the primary care doctor, you can always look through the
website or call the Wexner Medical Center operator or to get to central scheduling and
schedule an appointment. Dr. Sheikh, is there any other information that you'd like to share
about how to talk with your doctor? Especially for establishing care with a primary care
doctor, it would be helpful to to get records from your previous doctors if you know at
least the practice names, locations, of your prior care, that would definitely be very
helpful. Another thing is just to be honest, in terms of what concerns you have. The more
honest you are, the better care that you'll get. Great. Thank you so much to Dr Sheikh
for joining me today. He provided a lot of great information that I hope can be helpful
for your next doctor's visit. Thank you again. See you next time!