An article by Dr. S.C. Panda published in the journal Mens Sana Monograph explained that medicine is both a science and an artistic endeavor.
“Both are interdependent and inseparable, just like two sides of a coin,” Panda writes. “The importance of the art of medicine is because we have to deal with a human being, his or her body, mind and soul.”
If the artistic part of medicine requires thorough, comprehensible information for patients, though, some of them might think it needs a few new brushstrokes. According to 2005 Mayo Clinic study, out of 43 patients recently diagnosed, fewer than half were able to describe their diagnosis, treatment and side effects. This has a dramatic impact on patient adherence to medication, positive outcomes and even future care, as lack of patient literacy leads to $73 billion in health care bills each year, according to the National Academy on an Aging Society.
Oncologist Dr. Joseph Hofmeister of Columbus Oncology and Hematology Associates is one of a group of people looking to help patients better understand breast cancer diagnoses. This team of cancer specialists has come together to create a patient manifesto, something for patients of all walks of life to be able to understand more comprehensibly about their breast cancer diagnosis.
The information has been compiled in a book: Dr. Joe Explains: How Breast Cancer is Like a Dandelion.
“The book uses analogies to explain the complex medical terminology and concepts of breast cancer in a way that is understandable to the person with no medical background,” Hofmeister says. This effort includes “descriptions of common, everyday experiences – (allowing) a patient to visualize a garden and dandelions, for instance, and then apply it to breast cancer and the medical information in a less intimidating way.”
Dandelions
Over the last decade, Hofmeister and his team have been able to create a multitude of tools to help all patients better understand their experience with cancer.
“I began creating these tools because I realized that this was the best way to relate the complex medical information to his patients,” he says. “They could move past the medical foreign language, or what had to sound like gibberish, to understand the meaning.”
A dandelion is a logical comparison for someone with breast cancer, says Hofmeister.
“They have a life cycle that can be compared to cancer. They have deep roots; they are difficult to get rid of. They have the yellow flower that does not spread, and then they change and develop the seed head,” he says. “Once the seeds develop they can spread, or blow in the wind, they grow everywhere. They can lay dormant for periods of time and return the next year.”
Homework
Hofmeister encourages patients to educate themselves early, so they might understand the concepts behind cancer before potentially facing a diagnosis.
Part of the goal of Dr. Joe Explains is to give patients the information they need to understand medical jargon the first time they might need to hear it in the doctor’s office. Utilizing another everyday example, Hofmeister likens it to foreign travel.
“If your doctor’s office is like a foreign country, then having and reading this book is like learning a foreign language before visiting that country,” he says. “It’s less stressful to learn it before you arrive than when you’re in the thick of it. We want to help patients to understand what is being said instead of trying to interpret the words and getting lost in the medical language.”
Dr. Clara Lee, an associate professor and cancer control researcher at The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital, emphasizes the importance of responding to patients’ emotional reactions and periodically checking to see if he or she understands what is being discussed. When discussing treatment options, she says, it’s worthwhile to use visual aids whenever possible, and to state pros and cons.
“When discussing risks, use proportions in addition to percentages, and state the positive and negatives frames – e.g., probability of something happening, and of it not happening,” Lee says.
Between surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, treatment of breast cancer is enormously complex, with multiple doctors and sometimes more than a year’s worth of treatment. That’s a lot to take in on an early visit, says Dr. Erin Macrae, an oncologist and Columbus Oncology and medical expert editor of Dr. Joe Explains.
“As physicians, we have a responsibility to explain the intricacies of both prognosis and plan of care to each newly diagnosed patient, and most of the time, we cannot accomplish that in a short initial office visit,” Macrae says.
If the initial book is a success, Hofmeister and his team aim to turn it into a series, looking next at colon cancer.
David Allen is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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