Before the end of year holidays, I wrote about the fact that I was to meet with another specialist at my Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) about my participation in the Track Your Plaque (TYP) program.
In that post, I described a strategy for engaging my HMO in implementing the TYP program in my life.
A key element of that strategy was and is to get the key information that is important for the TYP program into MY HMO patient record.
Accordingly, I prepared a formal document to take to my appointment with this specialist so I had specific data and issues documented to discuss.
I’m very happy I took this approach.
I’m not going to go into details here about how everything went because I need to pull my punches. Let me just say, however, that I’m amazed at the positive turn events have taken related to getting my HMO involved. Not everything has gone well and not everyone has been supportive but the most important elements have gone far better than I could possibly have imagined even just a month ago.
I have stripped out all my personal information from the document I prepared so you can browse it and evaluate how you might do something similar with your physicians. Also, I don’t see the preparation of this kind of document to be the first time I’ll be preparing something like this, so any feedback you have on the document is much appreciated.
Images of the reformatted document are shown after the jump…
January 9th, 2008 at 7:53 am
‘My blood test results are the best ever’ could be followed with something like a table with each type of blood test on its own line, and the test results for each date in the following columns.
Maybe attach printouts of scientific studies supporting your goals, and why you’re taking X supplement, or eating a certain diet, and number them so that it’s easy to flip to the page with the study, then highlight the important portions of the studies.
PS: I just read this; I’m guessing you’d like it (if you haven’t already read it):
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/lipid-hypothesis/low-carbs-and-lipids/
January 10th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hi S,
Thanks for the reply.
I did have a table of historical values for the elements of the standard lipid panel (LDL, HDL, TRI, TotChol). Sometimes I get a queasy feelilng putting my personal medical information out there on the net for the world to see. Perhaps it’s irrational but when I do feel uncomfortable, I don’t do it.
I think you’re right that the document needs enhancing by adding supporting studies for each supplement and/or test.
Great idea…. I’m thinking of a brand new set of posts about this….
Thanks alot !