Stacey Tinianov (@coffeemommy) wrote an excellent blogpost titled “Context, Understanding and Empathy: #IWishMyDoc & #IWishMyPatient” on the Flip the Clinic website February 1. Below are excerpts from that post that set the stage for our next LCSM Chat on February 12:

If you could openly offer any suggestion to your physician, what would it be and why?

If you could kindly suggest something that could improve your patient’s time in the clinic or overall health, what would you tell them?

Although whole health and wellness is the goal for both physicians and patients, we occasionally seem disconnected from—or even at odds with—each other. A health care provider’s best intentions can be crushed by time constraints. A patient’s desire to be well can get lost in the mix of misunderstanding.

In an effort to help provide context, improve understanding, generate empathy, and drive a change in behaviors between physician and patient, let’s make these wishes visible. In the month of February, with the hashtags #IWishMyDoc and #IWishMyPatient, we can start a respectful conversation, aimed at bridging the gap between patient and physician, with health, wellness, and shared understanding at the center.

The #LCSM Chat on February 12, 2015, at 8 PM Eastern Time, will support Stacey’s effort by fostering a respectful conversation that aims for shared understanding.  In a change of format for this chat, we will not have formal topics T1, T2, etc.  Instead, your moderator Janet Freeman-Daily (@JFreemanDaily) will post prompts to encourage you to share your wishes using the hashtags below in your tweets in addition to the #LCSM hashtag:

• #IWishMyDoc
• #IWishMyPatient
• #IWishMyNurse
• #IWishMyHospital
• #IWishMyInsurer

We’ll introduce ourselves during the first five minutes, then you can tweet any of these hashtags at any time during the one-hour chat.  Please remember to include #LCSM in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them.  You can read a primer on participating in the chat here.

Sample tweets to get you thinking (remember, be respectful – no blaming!):

• #IWishMyDoc would offer to call me in evening after my scan with results so I won’t worry over a weekend  #LCSM
• #IWishMyPatient would tell me when they don’t understand a term I’m using so I can clarify it during the visit. #LCSM
• #IWishMyNurse would send me a follow-up email a few days after an office visit to see if I have questions.  #LCSM
• #IWishMyHospital would make scan report available online via patient portal after patient and doc discuss it. #LCSM

Stacey will be collating responses collected via Twitter throughout February, and will share the results.  We look forward to seeing you in the chat!