Why shared medical appointments can improve patient care

They're common in the UK, and we should offer them here too
Professor Garry Egger
Shared care

When I attended a specialist orthopaedic surgeon recently for a lifestyle-related musculoskeletal problem — of which I am prone these days, having probably played the game of life too hard in the first half — I was impressed with the quality of questions asked by my specialist colleague.

Impressed because, as a medical/health educator, I’ve always maintained that a patient needs to be treated as a whole being, and that this is hardly possible without details like ‘what do you do for the 364 days that I’m not seeing you’.