What’s Needling Healthcare: Our System Needs Recovery

Ask most people what medical device they most associate with doctors, and they’ll say needles. Doctors and needles just go together, but many patients are just plain prickly. Trouble is that they have needle phobia and develop symptoms including “heart racing, shallow breathing and nerve jangling reactions seen in other intense fears,” according to The Body Odd blog. They may even faint, says psychology professor Martin Antony, who wrote the book “Overcoming Medical Phobias.”

Taking Their Time

Among patients, another clearly increasing medical phobia is that of not receiving enough care, timely care or the right kind of care. While pundits assess the healthcare “crisis,” perplexed patients are left waiting for appointments with their primary care physician. When they finally score one, it flies by within a few minutes either leaving them feeling shortchanged or sent on a journey of lab tests and other diagnostics, far from the PCP’s office and attention. Wouldn’t be it nice, they wonder out loud, if my doctor really spent time with me? That wish can be answered within the concierge medicine model in which patients’ calls are answered quickly, along with their concerns. SignatureMD’s personalized medicine curriculum is proactive, one in which the physician plays the role of coach. Both physician and patient are “in it to win it”—the lifelong game of wellness.
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About SignatureMD

SignatureMD is one of the nation’s largest firms providing initial conversion and ongoing support services to concierge medicine physicians. SignatureMD currently partners with over 200 affiliated primary care physicians and specialists across 35 states, and its network is rapidly expanding.