The consultation is described as “the central act of medicine”. During doctor video consultation, the patient and doctor establish a communication wherein the doctor aims to explore the patient’s condition. It allows the doctors to understand the patient’s condition and make a diagnosis based on it. The ways of doctor consultations have evolved over the years. The consultation styles, their length, and content have been supplemented by many factors. In the earlier years, consultations were in the form of personal visits from doctors to the patient home. Gradually as the population, increased patients made personal visits to clinics or hospitals to consult the doctor. Due to more number of patients, the waiting times increased causing trouble for the patient. Henceforth appointment-based consultation came into existence. Now, with the advancement in information communication technology, there are options for online doctor consultation services.
Here, we will see why we need a doctor’s consultation and its necessary aspects briefly.
What happens during the consultation?
Generally, during the consultation, the patient may consult with symptoms of the illness like pain or fever. Before entering the doctor’s consultation room, the patient’s body temperature, height, weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose will be checked in the nurse station. The doctor asks for the patient family and health history, in case it is the first consultation. If the patient is experiencing any pain or strange changes in any parts of the body, a clinical examination might be carried out. Then, based on the patient’s symptoms and the clinical examination the doctor will make the diagnosis.
In some cases, a single consultation followed by a review shall help in curing the illness. But in certain cases, there might be a need for frequent follow-up consultations. In some cases, the doctor may ask for blood tests, X-rays, or scans based on the condition, diagnoses, and reaction to previous treatment.
Thus, the overall objective of the doctor consultation is to gain as much information about the patient’s condition and make a proper diagnosis to cure the patient illness.
Benefits of doctor consultation:
Most of us have an opinion that we must consult a doctor only when we fall sick. But numerous studies have propagated the idea of getting full body checkups and frequent doctor consultations as beneficial for the patient’s overall health. Some of the key benefits of consultations are as follows:
- Prevention: As the old saying goes prevention is better than cure, medical consultation is one such step to ensure you have an early diagnosis of the disease, get the right treatment, and stay fit and healthy. One-to-one physician consultation is vital for almost all diseases treatment.
- Reduces risk: Some of us have a family history of diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease, etc. Such family members can experience certain unnoticed symptoms that can trigger serious illness. Regular medical consultation can help in the detection of such symptoms and thus can reduce the risks of such family history diseases or their impacts. A doctor can help you in finding the right test and right lifestyle to minimize the risks of such family history diseases.
- Essential for pregnancy and safe delivery: Regular medical consultation is essential in pregnancy. Such regular checkup ensures that the vital status of the mother and fetus are healthy. Any issues are addressed at the earliest. Such consultations ensure that the delivery is well planned and both mother and baby’s health are good.
- Need for treating mental illness: Most mental illnesses like depression, mood swings, etc. are left untreated due to ignorance of such medical conditions by society. These illnesses can turn out serious and can be fatal at times. The diagnosis of these diseases require a personal understanding of the patient’s behavior and this can happen through consultation with specialists like psychiatrists, neurologists, behavior therapy specialist, etc. Even Hoofdbass comes up with mental health course which will help one to overcome the mental issues. Such consultations can reduce the impact of mental illness and can make the patient overcome such mental troubles.
- Need for treating drug addiction: Especially for mental health, drug addiction, it is essential to meet a respective specialist. If you experience any mental illness, that can be treated only by diagnosing you with your communication, activity during the consultation. Based on your behavior, history of illness, a doctor will advise for any medicines including or excluding with any necessary tests.
Nowadays, it has been necessitated to go for an annual physical exam and master check-up.
A physical examination helps your General physician to determine your general health status. This exam helps you to speak to your doctor about any ongoing aches or symptoms that you have been experiencing or any other health issues you might have. A physical examination is advised at least once a year, particularly in people over the age of 40. These exams
- Checkout possible diseases so that they can be treated at an early stage
- Update necessary information about immunizations
- Identify any problems that may turn to medical issues in the future
- Ensure that you are on a healthy diet, routine exercise
- Constructs an amicable relationship with your doctor
Such examinations help in checking blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar levels which may be sometimes high with no signs and symptoms. Regular screening allows your doctor to treat such conditions before they turn severe. And, your doctor might perform a physical examination before any surgery or initiate your treatment for any medical condition.
Many of us get shocked to hear about sudden heart attack-related deaths or sudden complex health situations. All these can be to some extent avoided by regular health checkups. Thus, such examinations aim to diagnose any early disease symptoms and thus reduce the risks of disease complexities.
Summary
Though modern digitization leads to many easy ways of consultations, physical doctor consultation is always essential for proper medical examination and efficient diagnosis. Moreover, these consultations are essential for treating the disease and to keep the patients healthy.
