Documentation for Alternative Medicine

[IMNOW]

Hello Everyone -

Would love to hear your opinion on this topic.

Many physicians say that alternative medicine practitioners often do not communicate their treatments effectively to allopathic physicians. The current documentation methods are sometimes said to be cryptic with terms that are unrecognizable to allopathic physicians and therefore effective communications are slowed or not possible.

What method of communication would work best for you as a physician? Are the current methods effective for you or would you prefer narrative reports every time?

Thank you for your thoughts.

IMNOW

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[D elegans]

1. Why are you collecting this information?

2. You are probably posting in the wrong forum. This one is for medical students. There are other fora for residents.

3. Hopefully this isn't a thinly-veiled troll thread trying to incite rants about "alternative" medicine.

 

[IMNOW]

1. Why are you collecting this information?

2. You are probably posting in the wrong forum. This one is for medical students. There are other fora for residents.

3. Hopefully this isn't a thinly-veiled troll thread trying to incite rants about "alternative" medicine.

No trolling here. Just looking to gather thoughts from Students of medicine who may care to share their ideas. I understand this is for students and was hoping to get feedback from students as well as established providers. No mal-intent, just want to see what your opinion is.

I am considering becoming a doctor (MD) myself and I have a background in alternative medicine. Trying to understand what it is that physicians want to see.

 

[Flapjacks]

Students of medicine ( like saying, Lord of War), do not know **** about practicing medicine.

Physician wants to see proven science, through the good ole scientific process of theory and testing. Not just stopping at theory and writing broscience articles.

If you truly have a degree in Alternative Medicine, I'm guessing you took at least middle school science classes where the scientific process has been explained; you wouldn't need us to explain to you how to approach physicians about treatment methods.

If these treatment methods seem cryptic, start from organic chemistry and work your way up.

 

[D elegans]

Students of medicine ( like saying, Lord of War), do not know **** about practicing medicine.

Physician wants to see proven science, through the good ole scientific process of theory and testing. Not just stopping at theory and writing broscience articles.

If you truly have a degree in Alternative Medicine, I'm guessing you took at least middle school science classes where the scientific process has been explained; you wouldn't need us to explain to you how to approach physicians about treatment methods.

If these treatment methods seem cryptic, start from organic chemistry and work your way up.

+1

Most physicians and scientists are likely to be highly suspicious of a discipline that suggests it is a legitimate "alternative" to established scientific inquiry.

I don't want to sound rude as you sound genuine and kind. But the reality is that you'll find most people here thinking that "alternative medicine" is at best a pseudoscience and at worst a deliberate, potentially dangerous scam.

 

[LossForWords]

Hello Everyone -

Would love to hear your opinion on this topic.

Many physicians say that alternative medicine practitioners often do not communicate their treatments effectively to allopathic physicians. The current documentation methods are sometimes said to be cryptic with terms that are unrecognizable to allopathic physicians and therefore effective communications are slowed or not possible.

What method of communication would work best for you as a physician? Are the current methods effective for you or would you prefer narrative reports every time?

Thank you for your thoughts.

IMNOW

Just give the patient a notecard with any actual compounds they're taking on it. If I was interested, I could look up anything that might be concerning to make sure it doesn't have any interactions, but the pharmacist would probably do that anyway.

I could care less if my patient has bi-weekly reiki "treatments" or rubs crystals on their pulse points (unless they have a rash or something). Wouldn't change my treatment anyway.

 

[QuizzicalApe]

If your goal is to convince a physician, expect to need a series of independently conducted rigorously conducted studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

If your goal is to help a physician treat a patient that is also employing alternative medicine, just give the patient a print-out describing what substances he or she is being treated with, how they are administered, and in what quantity/frequency.

The physician's primary concern requiring communication on your end would be that a herbal therapy of some kind might contain compounds that could have a disastrous interaction with medications prescribed for the patient. That is to be avoided.

 

[isoquin]

Doctors utilize a set of standard, clearly defined terms to communicate with one another. When doctors begin to see words that are not standard and have no clear definition, communication is obviously broken. This is not even a matter of differing vocabulary sets, as such standardization is generally not present within the alternative medicine world.

My only advice would be to drop the terminology you believe makes sense, and use words that would allow any layman to precisely understand what was being done. That doesn't mean you should use compound names that contain multiple ingredients, even though that may be what you told your patient. Again, the goal is to use wording that allows laymen to understand what was being done.