“Symptoms and Diagnosis” Project Embraces Patient…

Omaha, NE (PRWEB) March 31, 2012

Nabin Sapkota, MD, author of “Symptoms and Diagnosis” book project, establishes a working relationship with the leaders of patient empowerment movement and writes his first guest article about how empowered patients can understand and participate in their own health care.

Nabin Sapkota, MD is a member of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Traditionally doctors have been the central decision makers in the delivery of health care in the United States but patients are demanding more and more active role in making the critical decisions that affect their own health. Society for Participatory Medicine was formed by such patient leaders who wanted to form a coalition around this idea and enable ways to put patients back in the driver’s seat when making their health care decisions. Nabin Sapkota MD had established “Symptoms and Diagnosis” book project to teach patients how symptoms are analyzed and how diagnosis is made in real patients. The slogan of “Symptoms and Diagnosis” book is, “Ask not what the symptoms of a disease are, ask what the symptoms of a particular patient mean.” This common idea of a patient centered health care helped forge the working relationship between the two parties.

Doctor Sapkota states,”I am very exited to be a part of the patient empowerment movement. I will be doing my part to spread this message of putting patients at the center of health care. I will take these ideas out from the big university teaching hospitals and put them in the community hospitals where the majority of the Americans get their health care. Unlike the big city university hospitals, patients in these communities need more encouragement to participate in their care and that is what I plan to do.”

He adds, “I am really impressed with the courage and initiative our patient leaders have taken to achieve so many things in such a short time. Because of their efforts, patient empowerment has gone from obscurity to mainstream media within a few years. They have been able to promote the concept of patient experts who have very specific and extensive up-do-date knowledge of their own disease, diagnosis and symptoms. They envision a healthcare delivery system where doctors and patients share their knowledge and experience and make mutually agreeable decisions based on what would work for the individual patient. Because of the hard work of these patient leaders, patients now have a place to go for help and support when they are having trouble navigating their health care needs.”

Doctor Sapkota continues, “There is still a long road ahead in achieving our goals. Unfortunately, there are still doctors out there who think medical practice is about them, not about the patients. But I am very hopeful that it will change sooner than they would like to believe. Currently, many doctors assume patients would not be able to understand the complexity involved in medical decision making and want to make it easy for them. As more patients become empowered, that may not be the case. In my opinion, patients can understand any complex medical situation if we tell them in a language they understand. For my part, I will continue to write articles and produce instructional videos to help patients better understand how human body works in disease and health. When complete, ‘Symptoms and Diagnosis’ will be the first in-depth medical book written exclusively for patients. It will use the same case based approach to teaching medicine that they use in medical schools but it will also focus on the individual patient as a real human being with feelings and emotions instead of just a case of diagnosis. I hope to empower more patients with extensive medical knowledge and provide them with the confidence they need to work together with their doctor to actively participate in their diagnosis and treatment.”

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Pneumonia Symptoms in Adults Explained Directly to Patients

Omaha, NE (PRWEB) March 31, 2012

Nabin Sapkota, MD, author of “Symptoms and Diagnosis” project makes it very clear in his instructional video that he is not talking to his fellow healthcare providers and is talking directly to his patients. He explains how pneumonia symptoms in adult develop at the organ level. He uses a simple instructional drawing to explain what happens inside the lungs when we breathe. He then explains what pneumonia is and uses plain English to describe the basic mechanisms involved in the development of the symptoms. He also makes it clear that the symptoms of pneumonia depend on the specific situation of the individual patient.

Dr. Sapkota says, “Normally, instructional videos designed for patients are over-simplified with broad generalizations that are not very useful for patients looking for more information on the topic. Most reputed medical websites simply provide a list of symptoms of pneumonia that does not help anyone understand what the symptoms may signify in any individual patient. In this video, I am teaching my patients about the mechanism of the organs inside our body that are involved in patients with pneumonia. When you understand how these symptoms develop, you will be able to analyze the possible origin of the specific symptom.”

The doctor adds, “Some people still believe that they can not understand the mechanisms of diseases if they do not have any medical background. That is simply not true. People without medical background can understand complex medical problems if you tell them in a language they understand. You do not have to over-simplify and over-generalize the underlying concept just because you are avoiding technical terms. I will demonstrate that all medical concepts can be explained in details without using medical jargon.”

Dr. Sapkota further explains, “Pneumonia is simply an infection of the lungs. When bugs get into the lungs, they settle down deep inside the lungs. They cause irritation of the nerves in the small air tubes present inside the lungs. They cause inflammation or swelling of the lungs and produce pus like gunky liquid that can fill up the delicate small air bubbles where gas exchange take place. The irritation can cause cough and pain with breathing. The swelling can cause difficulty breathing. The fluid in the bubbles can prevent the blood vessels from being able to pick up oxygen from the bubble.This can cause low levels of oxygen in the blood. These bugs can also produce toxins that can travel into the blood and cause fevers, chills, weakness and sometimes confusion.”

Dr. Sapkota continues, “Those symptoms I just mentioned do not happen in all patients. The exact symptom in a patient depends on the unique situation. If someone has a very healthy and elastic lungs, their nerves are very sensitive. The only symptoms they may have could be cough and pain in the chest with cough. If someone has damaged and scarred lungs, the nerves may not be that sensitive and they may not have much cough to start with. They probably have the pneumonia spread to a larger area of the lungs even before they start to have any symptom. Their symptoms may be more from swelling of lungs than from irritation. They may only have symptoms of shortness of breath. This way, the unique situation of an individual patient dictates what unique set of symptoms that patient will have.”

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