How Does the Ideal Doctor Act? Patients Agree....

According to a just released Mayo Clinic study, there are seven specific qualities that define the "ideal" physician. (Note to certain doctors out there: egotistical, busy, pompous, harried, and arrogant are not on the list!) Find out which characteristics patients believe are seen in an "ideal" doctor now.

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According to a new Mayo Clinic study just released, a study has found that there are seven specific qualities that define the "ideal" physician: confident, empathetic, humane, personal, forthright, respectful and thorough.

Conversely, patients who described a "worst physician" experience focused on traits reflecting opposites of desired physician behaviors, especially perceived insensitive or disrespectful behavior.

The study suggests that training new and practicing physicians about interpersonal skills could have far-reaching effects for patients. The quality of a patient's relationship with a physician can affect not only a patient's emotional responses, but also behavioral and medical outcomes such as compliance and recovery. An editorial in the same issue expands on the patient-physician relationship, saying health institutions ought to improve quality by fostering a patient-centeredness approach to medicine.

James Li, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Division of Allergic Diseases, writes in an editorial that health care can't meet a standard of quality if the patient-physician interaction is hurried, disrespectful, cold or callous. Dr. Li has been involved with developing programs and curricula for teaching new and practicing physicians at Mayo Clinic about how to strengthen their interactions with patients. Mayo's structure of focusing on the patient also helps nurture strong relationships between physician and patient, he says.

"A physician who pays personal attention to the patient, who is respectful, compassionate and competent, that's what every patient wants," Dr. Li says. "It's really the duty and obligation of the medical community to design a health care system so that physicians are best able to exhibit those qualities for the good of the patient during the clinical encounter."

Dr. Li notes the seven behavioral traits identified by researchers as ideal for physicians can be taught in various settings, such as having medical residents witness positive interactions which they can model.

Of the seven behavior traits, "thorough" was named most often by patients. Patients can sense if a physician is rushed or preoccupied, the study's authors say, just as they can sense a physician's genuine interest.

"If patients have opportunities to tell their stories, to be asked questions and have the physician verbalize understanding of what's been shared, it leaves them feeling like they were heard," Dr. Li says. "This leaves them with the impression that the physician was thorough."

In their interviews about physician behavior, patients rarely commented on a physician's technical skill. This doesn't suggest technical skill is less important than interpersonal skill, the authors say, but rather more difficult for patients to judge.

Source: The study was published in the March '06 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings