What to ask your doctor

Ten questions you must ask your doctor, by Ray Moynihan and Melissa Sweet, is a timely contribution to issues involving the patient–doctor relationship. The basis of any such relationship should be trust. Trust is not a given; it relies on good communication. Yet, communication does not always work out well in these relationships (as complaints to my office testify), as much because of patients and their state of mind as because of busy general practitioners themselves. We know patients want to participate in decisions about their health, but they are not always in a position to know how to get the information they need.