Dr. David Rakel Talks about the connection between good medicine and the Doctor-Patient connection

Bio: David Rakel, MD is professor and chair of the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. Rakel joined DFMCH faculty in 2001. He founded the integrative health program (now known as the Osher Center for Integrative Health at University of Wisconsin-Madison) and received the Gold Foundation’s Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, the school’s highest honor for excellence and compassion in care. His team worked with more than 50 clinical systems within the Veterans Health Administration to implement changes to make care more personalized, proactive, and patient driven. 

An author of both academic and popular writings, one of Rakel’s missions is to communicate medical information in a way that is accessible to people of all backgrounds. He has published eleven books, including the Textbook of Family Medicine, Current Therapy, and Integrative Medicine, as well as peer-reviewed research on the impact of measures such as mindfulness meditation and the power of the therapeutic encounter. His 2018 book The Compassionate Connection focuses on how compassionate relationships can influence health outcomes. 

AGENDA: 

1.             This podcast today is about good medicine being rooted in the doctor-patient connection. Let’s start with your study on the common cold, including the unexpected twist, which makes me cry nearly every time I tell your story. 

2.             Why is the patient-doctor connection so important? What is ’the clinician effect’ and its non-specific influences on health? 

3.             What does the research say about this? What research should we be seeking to understand and amplify this effect further? 

4.             What is the bare minimum we need to recreate this in a patient-doctor visit today? What would the ideal scenario be? Talk to us about some innovations in primary care delivery. 

5.             What are the examples in which you see this working well in the world today? What’s happening in the Functional Medicine world? What’s been the transformation that’s happened in the VA? Where else? 

6.             What advice to you give patients seeking to connect with their busy doctors? What advice to you give to clinicians, new & old, who yearn or ache for this but aren’t sure how to make it happen? 

7.             Let’s end on an optimistic note- what are some truths and magic that you’ve seen come out of an intact patient-doctor connection?