Earlier this year, the Oliver Center for Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas, started a patient-empowerment and patient-centered project to encourage patients to tape-record their doctor’s advice during office visits.

This makes sense from so many perspectives—scientific as well as humane.

We have no doubt scientifically that people forget a lot of what is said to them, and studies show that this is particularly true during healthcare visits. In fact, one study found that, by the next day, patients forgot about 30% of what the doctor thought was important. When we know scientifically that this is the case, how can we not insist that patients bring in tape recorders to help them remember our instructions to them?

Another fact is that 30% of Americans are functionally illiterate. (So, if you’re reading this right now, you’re not in this group—but you may still have a kind enough heart that you think that these people should also get the benefit of being able to remember and follow their doctors’ advice.) Remember:  those great patient information handouts don’t work for this group.

Then there are the ADD/ADHD people, and I have a few in my family, who absolutely cannot communicate to me what the doctor has said to them. Just as in other circumstances, the doctor is talking but maybe they are distracted by something on his desk … and so it goes. And these are really highly-functioning people as a rule—they have jobs, homes, and college degrees. Our educational system makes accommodations for these people with ADD—and they also need help in the doctor’s office.

And here’s another fact that makes tape-recording a good idea:  people do not get and treat their illnesses in a vacuum. Their social systems—their spouses, families, and friends—help them adjust to and handle their illnesses. And when allowed (and encouraged), this social network can have a profoundly positive influence on how the patient handles his illness. But they’ll need to know what the doctor wants in order to be able to help.

Just imagine how this conversation could go:

             Wife:  “I’m worried because you’re eating eggs every morning.

            Husband:  “The doctor hasn’t said anything about eggs.”

            Wife:  “Let’s put that on the list of things you’ll ask him next time.”

            Husband to doctor, on tape:  “My wife is worried because I eat 2 eggs every morning.”

            Doctor to husband, on tape:  “I think 4 days a week is okay for you. Egg beaters or something besides eggs on the other days.”

           –Then husband and wife listen to the tape together, and wife and husband are both on the same page in knowing what the doctor wants.

Alternatively, the doctor might have said, “Eggs every day—no problem!”, and then the wife’s concern is alleviated—and isn’t there healing and peace in that as well?

And doctors, how better to have compliant patients than to make sure they remember your advice? 

We haven’t even talked about patient and family satisfaction (and the resulting psychological and actual health value) that comes from having a sense of involvement and control in your own healthcare.

Now—how simple, valuable, and just plain commonsensical is this idea:  taping a doctor’s advice so you can better remember it, share it with your family, and follow it? Why haven’t we thought of this before?

It doesn’t matter. We’ve thought of it now, and UTMB has initiated the project.

Go to www.utmb.edu/olivercenter to see a video on this project. Also be sure and click on http://www.utmb.edu/olivercenter/projects/current/pvrp/pvrp-comments.asp, where you’ll see the first round of comments from UTMB patients about the project. They’re heartwarming.

Now for a little update. This project was started in May, and in August, UTMB put the project on their Oliver Center website. A friend of mine read about it, and just yesterday, when she had to see a doctor in Houston about her leg that she broke over the weekend, her husband said to the orthopedist, “UTMB is doing a project where they’re giving tape recorders to patients to help them remember the doctor’s advice. Can we bring a tape recorder next time?” And the doctor said, “Sure.”

Awesome.