Medics are from Mars: Patients are from Pluto
Helping healthcare  professionals communicate effectively across the divide

When it comes to explaining risks and benefits, doctors rarely take account of just how differently 'medics' and patients actually assess  key issues such as 'risks' and 'caring'.

With new information and powerful decision aids now available to  guide their communications strategies, it's easy for clinicians and other healthcare professionals to be more effective at sharing their professional knowledge in patient-focused ways. Just as exciting, these same 'best practices' also bring valuable benefits to doctors. They deepen doctor-patient partnerships and also improve clinicians' personal satisfaction in their highly pressured lives. An important CME topic made uniquely appealing to all healthcare audiences by the inclusion of National Geographic Society video segments personally shot by the speaker .

Topic Contents: Paling's Perspectives
Helping patients understand risks has become an exciting new field that results in big benefits to patients, physicians as well as the medical institutions in which they operate. Starting from a new awareness of how doctors and patients often views key things differently, training in modern medical risk communication leads to increased patient-satisfaction as well as deeper doctor- patient partnerships.
It also results in doctors feeling much better about their ability to effectively communicate their knowledge to patients (while, incidentally, reducing exposure to medical malpractice claims.).
The major take-home benefit is that physicians can readily apply some simple (but not obvious) communications skills that greatly help their patients when it comes to balancing the risks and benefits, and making medical decisions.

This is a topic that is ideal for all types of medical meetings- from specialist associations to hospital management retreats to major healthcare improvement conventions worldwide. It is ideal for both keynotes and detailed training sessions where the topic can be focused on answering clients' specific needs. This presentation is positive and practicable and yields significant return on investment for doctors, patients and all healthcare organizations.

Here's what attendees can expect.
*Understand the obstacles that patients often experience with the ways that doctors traditionally explain risks
* Experience increased satisfaction, morale and productivity as health care professionals
* Use simple new tools (similar to pie charts and bar charts) to achieve more effective patient communication
* Recognize how shared visual aids can also serve as highly effective social lubricants enhancing the sense of partnership between healthcare professionals and their clients
* Learn how to create customized ris perspective scales and palettes that show the probable outcomes of their patients' choices in a way that is effective and does not cause undo alarm.
* Explore the "epidemiology" of existing malpractice records, including a working hypothesis of why women are far less likely to be sued than men (other things being equal)
* Be encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools in their special circumstances.
* These presentations include brief segments from John Paling's Emmy-Awarded, national Geographic wildlife movies (narrated live) to serve as memorable metaphors to reinforce the main points of his message.