Why you get better care when you stop nodding and start asking why
This article discusses the importance of patients actively questioning their doctors rather than passively accepting medical advice. It highlights that medical diagnoses are often based on probability and interpretation rather than absolute certainty.
Why it matters
Encouraging patient agency can lead to better health outcomes and prevent unnecessary, costly, or ineffective medical procedures.
Priya walks into an orthopaedician’s clinic with knee pain that she says she has had for three months. The doctor spends eight minutes with her, orders an MRI, and asks her to come back with the images.
The MRI shows signs of early osteoarthritis. The doctor lists three options: injections, physiotherapy or wait and watch. Priya nods, does not ask why she needed an MRI when the doctor could have examined her knee, and does not ask what ‘early osteoarthritis’ actually means or what happens if she does nothing. She opts for injections because of how she thought the doctor said it — some inflection and tone.
Six months and four injections later, she has spent ₹15,000 but her pain is back. She is wondering if she got scammed, and if injections were ever the right call.
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