REFINE THE PATIENT-CENTRIC DIALOGUE
Opportunities to enhance the patient
dialogue in primary care
Explore examples and insights around enhancing engaging
patient-centric dialogue.
Utilize open-ended questions
to reveal deeper insights
Developing collaborative relationships between healthcare providers and patients can be a quick and simple way to elevate their treatment journey.
5 Tips to Enhance Patient Conversations:1
2022;16(5):560-573.
Why use open-ended questions?2
2. Hahn SR, Lipton RB, Sheftell FD, et al. Healthcare provider-patient communication and migraine assessment: results of the American Migraine Communication Study, phase II. Curr Med Res Opin. 2008;24(6):1711-1718.
How do healthcare providers
typically talk to their patients?3
3. Hahn SR, Bradt P, Hewett KA, Ng DB. Physician-patient communication about overactive bladder: results of an observational sociolinguistic study. PLoS One. 2017;12(11):e0186122. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186122
Healthcare provider dialogue reel
In primary care, we just don’t have time to discuss optimizing acute migraine treatments, or do we?
What are the considerations for optimization of acute treatments for migraine attacks?
In primary care, we just don’t have time to get into this. Or do we?
Hi, I’m Dr. Linda Davis. I’m a board-certified family practitioner and Medical Director of Kolvita Family Group in Mission Viejo, CA.
I’ve partnered with AbbVie to talk with you today about the importance of enhancing patient-centric dialogue.
Primary care providers are key to effective management of migraine as they are often the first stop for many patients consulting for headache.
Acute treatment plans should be offered to all patients with migraine and each patient is different.
Identifying the most appropriate acute treatment option and optimal treatment window is important in minimizing the burden of migraine.
It can also minimize the overuse of acute medications which is a risk factor for increasing headache frequency and severity.
Let’s show an example conversation with a patient.
So, do you feel your migraine medication is working when you have an attack?
Yeah; good enough.
Are you taking them as needed?
Yes
Do you want to make any changes?
No; I don’t want to lose the progress I’ve made.
Sounds good.
Let’s now look at opportunities to enhance this dialogue.
How has it been going with your migraine medication when you have an attack?
What do you want to know?
In your own words, just tell me about what it was like when you took it on one of your bad migraine days.
Well, I took the medication, but it didn’t always work very well.
Ok, why do you think it wasn’t working that time?
I think it happens when I sometimes wait until the headache pain is bad enough.
Why are you waiting to treat?
Well, sometimes when I’m doing social events like driving to my son’s birthday last week, I worry about things like side effects, I only get so many a month with my insurance or it doesn’t work fast enough. But I don’t want to make changes and lose the progress I’ve made.
Let’s talk about this further because I don’t want us to settle. There are options we can try to really optimize your treatment plan for when you get a migraine attack.
As you can see, incorporating a few open-ended questions can enhance your collaborative relationship with your patients.
It can be short yet still impactful in coordinating on individual goals for optimizing migraine acute treatments.
