Feel like your doctor doesn’t care? New curriculum aims to change that

(Hershey) — Ask someone about health care, and at some point, they’ll probably complain its lost its personal touch.

They might say their doctor hardly looked up from their computer to glance at them, didn’t even bother to ask how they were feeling or barely seem to care.

It’s a criticism that has become more and more prevalent as health care has evolved into more of a business.

Now, there’s an effort in the midstate trying to find a better way.

Think of the last time you needed health care.

Maybe an emergency room visit, or a stopover at an urgent care clinic, perhaps even being admitted to the hospital.

Did you come away thinking, does that doctor even know my name?

“Yeah, I hear it a lot,” says Dan Wolpaw, a physician.

“Some people are really under the gun in their practices these days, there’s no question about it,” he adds. “And I’ve been under the gun, and it’s hard, it’s hard to deal with that. But first of all, it really doesn’t take a long time to connect with people.”

Wolpaw knows the time pressure that doctors face.

But he’s also been charged with guiding a group of students as they create a whole new curriculum as the Penn State College of Medicine adds a four-year program in State College.

Content versus learning skills

In many programs, memorizing and figuring out the content comes first.

“These people who come into medicine are all bright. These students are all bright, they can do that,” says Wolpaw.

“So our focus in education is not only on that, we are focusing on that, but is on their professional identity formation, and their ability to interact with people, communities, patients and population in a holistic way.”

So while it’s true you can’t help someone get better if you can’t diagnose the problem, Tom Laux says a laser-like concentration on the diagnosis comes at the expense of other aspects.

“Often, especially in the first years of medical education, you’re so focused on things like anatomy, on your textbook work, and then you figure, okay, later in time you’ll add in the human element,” says Laux.

Laux would know a bit about this – he worked as a teacher before enrolling at the College of Medicine, so he’s well-positioned to put together a curriculum with four other students.

How to connect with someone

Now, it’s not like they’re not going to make connecting with someone into some kind of science.

Wolpaw, their supervisor, says it’s about making an effort and maybe being human for a brief moment.

He says: “A little comment about the fact that they’re wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt or a Phillies hat and all of a sudden you have a little 30 second conversation and it changes the whole relationship, so it doesn’t necessarily take time.”

Then, he says, doctors could move on to the physical health side of things, and hey, the patient might feel like they’re more part of the conversation.

But, there’s still the usual med school content.

Yes, the cadaver lab.

But remember, this curriculum will be focused on keeping people alive and healthy.

And that means looking at the community too.

Are fresh fruits and vegetables available?

Can a patient get time off from work for an appointment?

And most importantly, Tom Laux says, can they get there?

“It doesn’t matter how well you understand lung function, you can’t listen to their lungs. You can’t do these things.”

Other parts of the curriculum

Students in September’s incoming class will not sit in a classroom very long.

Morgan Decker, another student assembling the curriculum, says they’ll jump right in, with mornings in a clinic, and afternoons in class, to discuss cases they saw.

“Can they afford the drug that I’m prescribing or is this test really necessary because I know they have this insurance and that might not be covered?” says Decker. “Holisitic is another word that we use quite often. Having that complete view, as much as we can, of the patient.”

There are going to be those who say, sure this all sounds good, but you know, these are younger people who just don’t understand how the world really works.

Well, Decker says bring it on.

“That’s kind of where I look at them, and I acknowledge their experience and I say mine’s going to be totally different.”

“If you want to focus on something other than empathy, then great. But for us, and for our curriculum, that’s such a staple in what we believe in, and so, you know hey, I think our way is good, and sure that’s fine.”

A new class of about 30 full-time students will start this fall at Penn State College of Medicine in University Park.

Leaders are hoping it’s the start of a change in how the US thinks about health care.