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VIDEO: Physicians must nurture the engaged patient

VIENNA — In this exclusive video from the International Liver Congress 2019, Wayne Eskridge, founder and CEO of the Fatty Liver Foundation, discusses the need for physicians to support patients who are engaged in their health care.

“We’re cultivating a society of patients where we want them to understand their disease, to do their research, to become engaged with their own health and their body,” Eskridge told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease.

Eskridge said that he and his colleagues at the Foundation frequently hear from patients that when they bring in information such as stories or articles that they think apply to their health, their primary care physicians are under so much time pressure that the patients’ efforts are dismissed, and the physician focuses on protocol and requirements.

“We’ve created a tremendous crunch for the physician and yet we are not responding to the ideal patient who’s engaged with their health care, and that needs to change,” he said. “We think that one of the biggest problems we have is that we don’t have enough patients that are engaged with their health and it’s a real downer when the physician is not encouraging that kind of behavior. We’d like to encourage everybody to take that seriously because we’re trying to throw a lot of engaged patients your way.”

Disclosure: Eskridge reports no relevant financial disclosures.