Announcer:
Welcome to CME on ReachMD. This episode is part of our MinuteCME curriculum.
Prior to beginning the activity, please be sure to review the faculty and commercial support disclosure statements as well as the learning objectives.
Dr. Thorpy:
This is CME on ReachMD, and I’m Dr. Michael Thorpy. Here with me today is Dr. Anne Marie Morse.
Anne, if you have a patient that comes into your office who’s recently been diagnosed with narcolepsy and she’s hesitant about taking the medication that you’re recommending because she’s read about some stuff on the internet about how it could possible cause some potential adverse effects, how do you counsel this patient and provide accurate information for them?
Dr. Morse:
So one of the first things that I would do in this particular situation is applaud the patient for putting themselves in that driver’s seat in their own journey. Although many physicians sometimes become frustrated by patients who come in with, “I have done my research on the internet,” I tend to take the approach of, “You are clearly an active person in your own medical journey.” An educated, engaged, active patient is one that is driven to have the best outcomes.
So first and foremost, it's really important for us to have a discussion of what are the things that were of concern? When we’re able to look at those factors, we also need to balance the concerns or potential risks that come along with any potential medication with what is the burden of the symptoms that you’re experiencing. With that, we then need to develop a progress plan. What does “great” look like, and what are the things or the guardrails that we need to stay in the lanes of? So when we’re creating this progress plan, we need to understand and incorporate where those concerns may come from. We also need to make sure we’re providing additional education, especially if those concerns are not based in fact and are based in myth, and redirect to resources that may be more holistic in regards to all of the information that would be useful.
When we are able to have this type of conversation that is really transparent and reinforcing the empowerment and activation of the patient in that journey, we generally are also identifying that this is a strategy that is going to lead to a greater degree of adherence, because it’s returning the control to the patient and personalizing it to what their preferences are but also what their fears are and making sure that we’re keeping them in a safe journey that is going to lead to a more optimal outcome.
Dr. Thorpy:
Anne, I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit more about the importance of adherence. There are people in different situations, for example, the mother that might have a baby at night, the student who goes away to college and has issues with regards to taking their medications, or a high school student who can’t take medication during the daytime. Talk a little bit about those situations and how personalized medicine would make a difference in terms of their management.
Dr. Morse:
Those are all really great examples of factors that can very clearly impact adherence. And in fact, all of those examples can even be present in the same person over time. And so this is where personalizing the therapy for the person in front of you at the time if life that they’re in becomes so critically important, because you’re right that it’s difficult for a student in school to have to go to the nurse all the time to take their medication; or the college student being able to get on a consistent enough schedule to take the medication from day to day or night to night; or that mom who’s going to be woken up frequently in the night by a baby and may be concerned about taking something. So it is important to be able to frame the conversation around medication in regards to what are the needs for the person in front of you at the time that you’re treating them and then really trying to fit the medication profile into the person’s lifestyle, rather than the other way around.
Dr. Thorpy:
That it’s important to discuss this with the patient, as you have mentioned, Anne, that we’ve got to involve the patient in that discussion and point them in the right direction. Maybe that also involves pointing them to better sources of information on the internet. But involving the patient in a discussion about the various agents and seeking an agreement with the patient as to what’s going to work for her best or him best and then, you know, the importance of their taking their medication on a regular basis as well. So involving the patient is very important in the correct management.
Well, this was a brief but great discussion. Unfortunately, our time is up. Thanks for tuning in.
Announcer:
You have been listening to CME on ReachMD. This activity is provided by Prova Education and is part of our MinuteCME curriculum.
To receive your free CME credit, or to download this activity, go to ReachMD.com/Prova. Thank you for listening.
Facebook Comments