How to Help Your Doctor Help You: A Patient/Patient Advocate's Guide to Better Health Care

Please let me start by explaining that I am not a medical doctor, I am a scientist with a PhD in reproductive physiology. I am writing this guide as a long-time patient advocate, for family and friends, and as a patient myself, with the extra benefit of knowledge that my education and work has afforded me. Over the many years of experience with the healthcare system, I have made numerous observations and gathered a great deal of information that God has called on my heart to share.

I have watched as our health care system has changed from a family physician who knew their patients on a personal level to a much larger, resource and time deficient system where there is little personal knowledge of the patients. This does not mean that the physicians and staff are not good at their jobs or do not care, but rather that they do not have the luxury of time to get to know their patients and are limited by the information they have available to them to help you with your care. As such, the burden falls more on the patients themselves and their advocates to help the doctors provide you with the best care. I have written this book so you know what you can do to "Help Your Doctor Help You".

In How to Help Your Doctor Help You: A Patient/Patient Advocate's Guide to Better Health Care, I hope to share some information that I have found helpful and that I hope can help you in obtaining the best healthcare. I will also shares some anecdotes along the way on why I found this information to be so important. These are stories from my own experiences or those of people I know. Names have been left out or changed to protect the privacy of all involved.