Successful Medical Outcomes? It's The Relationship That Counts

[Guest guest]

Successful Medical Outcomes? It's The Relationship That Counts

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=36344

Relationships among members of a medical team, between a patient and

his caregivers, and between a medical team and a patient's family and

social support network are crucial to the delivery of health care and

to patient satisfaction with that care. The Regenstrief Institute

Inc. hosted nearly 100 of the nation's top scientists in an

interdisciplinary conference to discuss research on relationship-

centered care. The findings of the conference are reported in a

special supplement to the January issue of the Journal of General

Internal Medicine.

Inui, M.D., president of the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and

associate dean for health services research at the Indiana University

School of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine el, Ph.D.,

a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute and at the Center

for Implementing Evidence Based Practice at the Roudebush VA Medical

Center, chaired the Ninth Biannual Regenstrief Conference

entitled " Re-Forming Relationships in Health Care: Creating a

National Research Agenda for Relationship Centered Care. "

Presentations by experts representing a wide range of specialties

included discussions of the influence of information technology on

patient-physician relationships, training of future physicians, and

expression of emotion during medical visits. An editorial in the

supplement by F. Duffy, a senior vice president at the

American Board of Internal Medicine, notes that it has taken a decade

for relationship-centered care to secure attention and that it will

take another decade for it to be effectively studied.

" What we have found repeatedly is that medical care succeeds when

there are stable and enduring relationships, " says Dr. el.

" Successful outcomes lie not simply in the mechanics of medical care,

but in the social and emotional context of the doctor patient

relationship. For example, a medical test might reveal that a patient

has a condition requiring a significant change in diet. The doctor

must develop a working relationship with the patient if the treatment

is to succeed. Simply telling someone to control his dietary intake,

without knowing the individual, doesn't work. "

The Regenstrief Institute, an internationally recognized informatics

and health-care research organization, is dedicated to the

improvement of health through research that enhances the quality and

cost-effectiveness of health care. Established in Indianapolis by

philanthropist Sam Regenstrief in 1969 on the campus of the Indiana

University School of Medicine, the Institute is supported by the

Regenstrief Foundation and closely affiliated with the IU School of

Medicine and the Health and Hospital Corporation of n County,

Indiana.