When engaging with a specialist, it is all about asking the right questions, to ensure you can make the best decisions – stuff that’s beyond the obvious.

At Me2MD, we help find the right specialist for our patients and their caregivers. Often our patients seek discussions with multiple specialists. Over time, we have understood some of important aspects that are left out during these discussions. Knowing which questions to ask, and when, can make a huge difference in a care journey – here is our attempt to help with that.

Contents

1. Why is this important?
2. Structuring your conversation with a specialist
3. Part 1 - Understanding your current condition
4. Part 2 - Understanding the options available for your treatment
5. Part 3 - Understanding post-treatment care
6. In closing

Why is this important?

Most of our patients are either starting out (e.g., seeking an angioplasty) or on their care journey (e.g., after a chemotherapy session). Our always-on triage system combined with our clinical operations team helps identify the right setting and specialists for each case. Once we have setup a consult with the specialist, we typically offer some of our specialist engagement questions to help with the consult. They help in aligning patients and caregivers with aspects that could have been overlooked. Before you begin

When you engage Me2MD, we prepare an electronic file for our specialists to review. To get the best possible help, you need to make sure all the pertinent information is provided to the specialist. To get an idea about what’s needed, you can look at our Checklist for Cardiology (applicable for most PTCA and CABG engagements).

Structuring your conversation with a specialist

It is very likely that you might have scheduled your consult with our specialist to get an answer to a specific question, e.g., about a proposed plan for treatment or pros and cons of various treatment options or even just to understand your condition better. However, we recommend that you run this meeting in a structured manner, so that you can cover the most ground. Broadly speaking you can split the session into three parts –

1. Understanding your current condition
2. Understanding the options available for your treatment
3. Understanding post-treatment care

We have seen that addressing each of the above points leads to the most satisfaction for our customers. Let’s look at some of the typical questions asked under each of the above heads.

Part 1 - Understanding your current condition

You could spend the initial time in your consult getting a better understanding of your health conditions. Some the questions you could ask are –

1. Given your symptoms, test results, history (both personal and family), whether the specialist thinks the diagnosis is correct? Does the specialist recommend any other tests, to improve the diagnosis?

This is because specialists depend on specific diagnostic tests to make an assessment. What’s more, the tests need to be performed by someone who has the relevant skills. For example, 2D Echo for babies must be done by someone who can understand the nuances of what a paediatric cardiologist is looking for.

1. How common is your condition? Has the specialist seen other patients with the same diagnosis? How successful has the treatment been?

2. How urgent is the need for treatment for you? What will be some signs and symptoms of worsening health for you?

Part 2 - Understanding the options available for your treatment

You can now move on to discussing what’s probably the most important thing. You would have done a lot of research and gotten advice from others on treatment options. You can now do a deep dive with the specialist, so that you can plan the treatment journey. Some of the questions you can ask are –

1. About treatment options
   1. What are some of the treatment options with their pros and cons?
   2. Is non-surgical treatment possible?
   3. What are the success rates for each treatment option?
   4. Given your current health, what does the specialist recommend?
2. About the recommended treatment
   1. In case surgical treatment is required, what is the pre-operative schedule? What tests are required?
   2. How many procedures will be required? How long will hospitalization be required?
   3. Has the specialist performed such procedures? What is their success rate?
   4. What rehabilitation will be required post-operation?
3. About costs and services
   1. What are the costs for each treatment option?
   2. Is insurance coverage available?
   3. Does the hospital the specialist is attached with have a dedicated desk for helping with various logistics, including insurance, travel and stay for overseas and out-of-station patients and their families?

Part 3 - Understanding post-treatment care

Finally, you could address what care needs will arise after discharge home. This is an important part of the treatment and should be addressed in detail. Following are some of the questions you could ask:

1. What’s the path to recovery? How long will recovery take?
2. What care and precautions need to be taken during recovery?
3. Is any long-term medication required? Are any paramedical services such as physiotherapy or nursing assistance required as part of recovery?
4. What are the chances of relapse? Could the condition return?
5. What lifestyle changes should be done so that the patient has the best chance of remaining healthy?

In closing

As you can see, the above is a set of questions applicable to any specialist consult. You can certainly ask specific questions based on your research but be sure to cover enough ground.

Me2MD also helps with diagnosis and intervention specific questions if requested.

While the above may feel like a large set of questions, we have seen that specialists are able to address them very quickly and effectively. Please ensure that all your questions are addressed and answered during the consult. This will help you in planning the best course of treatment.

For more information on specific practices, visit our practice offerings in Cardiology, Haematology and Neurology.