SHARING personal information with a patient during a consultation might seem like a nice way to build a good doctor-patient relationship, but a study has found such disclosure has the opposite effect.Bringing up personal tidbits interrupted the flow of information between the doctor and patient and used up valuable patient time for no benefit, according to a paper in the Archives of InternalMedicine (25 June).Most exchanges were relatively benign, for example, a doctor revealing that they also experienced reflux. However, in one exchange, the authors noted inadvertent competition” as a doctor compared his weight with the patients and claimed to be 15kg lighter.NSW GP and Australian Doctorcolumnist Dr Jon Fogarty said when doctors reflected on their own or their familys...
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