The Power of Patient Empowerment

Every show this month is focused on a disease more prevalent and deadlier than all
cancers combined, except lung cancer. It’s peripheral artery disease, which is defined by narrowed or blocked vessels in mainly the leg arteries, that, if left untreated can lead to heart attack, stroke, and amputation. 

The key is early diagnosis and early, which may be as simple as medicine and a walking program when a patient with high risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, heredity, high blood pressure/cholesterol, presents with symptoms of leg weakness, pain, cramping, neuropathy, discoloration, and temperature changes.

Patients Want More Information

Patients can play a big role in improving their prognosis by becoming a compliant partner in their care with critical lifestyle modifications such as diet, exercise, and smoking cessation. But the problem is, according to patients, that their doctors don’t spend enough time with them to talk about their options and how to become that better partner in their care. 

The Way To My Heart, a 501(c)(3), which provides advocacy and support for PAD patient, conducted a poll of more than 200 hundred patients with PAD. The number one response to this question, “What is it that your doctors are missing or don’t get about PAD” reflects that. Fifty-eight percent wished their doctors would spend more time explaining their diagnosis and treatment options. Some of the respondents added comments. The most frequent comment was having to go online to find information about PAD because their healthcare providers aren’t giving it to them.

What do these patients want to know?

• What exactly does it mean to have PAD?
• What is the root cause of PAD or why do I have it?
• How long can I live with PAD?
• What can I expect along my journey and how do we strategize around it to increase my life expectancy?
• Do you have a list of warning signs I should post on my wall at home?
• What should be my goals?
• What treatment options do you offer compared to what others offer?
• How do I manage the debilitating pain between appointments?

Maximize Consultation Time To Educate Patients

The patients polled are asking very simple questions which are easy to answer if only a vascular specialist would take the time to answer them.

The opportunity to spend more time with patients and provide education, however, is why Vascular Surgeon Dr. Jennifer Avise with BASS Vascular in the San Francisco Bay Area of California chose this specialty. During this show, she explains to hosts Kym McNicholas and Dr. John Phillips the key components of a PAD consult, which includes a checklist provided to the patient on next steps in their care.

This is what our patients look for in us, and I love it when a patient comes to my office and says, ‘Hey, I’m invested,’ then I know we can really start to have those meaningful discussions and get to some of the meat of what we need to talk about with this disease.

Dr Jennifer Avise

Dr. Avise started out her medical journey interested in the psychology field. But quickly found the surgical field, where she could physically fix a problem, fascinating. Since she also enjoyed developing a long-term relationship with patients, she decided to specialize in vascular. Vascular allows her to extend the physician-patient relationship beyond just the surgical procedure to also guide and support the patient throughout the entire process. This, she sees as not only challenging but also rewarding.

I tell my patients I really like to operate. But I hope that you don’t need those services and we keep it in the non-operative sphere as I think it’s so important.

John Doe