Staying Fit
Remembering everything a doctor tells you can be difficult under any circumstances. Add on such complications as pain, anxiety, hearing loss or cognitive issues and patients are at risk of forgetting or misremembering important medical information.
To counter these issues, some patients are documenting their medical visits with a digital audio recorder or their smartphone, reports the New York Times. While many doctors may object to the practice out of concern that confidential discussions could be shared online or used in malpractice lawsuits, others support the trend. These doctors include James Ryan, a family practitioner in Ludington, Mich., whose office provides recordings for his patients.
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After getting patients’ approval, Ryan routinely records appointments and uploads the audio to a secure web platform that patients and their family members can listen to anytime. The system is annotated so that patients can easily locate specific topics of conversation.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the practice are much older patients with family members who don't live in town, but who want to be actively involved in their care, Ryan tells AARP. "If they have questions, they can add them to the chart" that accompanies the audio, he said. The system also provides helpful information that the doctor may not otherwise know. For example, patients often minimize their symptoms when speaking with Ryan, but then their children listen to the recordings and provide a different perspective. "Often the son or daughter make me aware of the severity of what [the patient is] coping with," Ryan said.
Ryan has found that age is not a barrier to using the recorded technologies. "Many people might think that some seniors don't have a grasp on technology, but that is not true. Some of the biggest advocates I have are 70-plus."
