By hook or by crook.

I was taking care of a patient diagnosed with locally advanced breast cancer, and just had the mass removed. The other day I dropped by just to make sure she was doing fine, and while we were discussing about her future management plan, she broke into tears.

"I don't want to have that chemotherapy, it would make me suffers more!"
 "I'll consume more vegetables and fruits, stop taking any canned food or processed food, and eat some traditional medications', she was firm about it.
"Please don't make me go through that suffering with chemotherapy".

After spending half an hour explaining to her about chemotherapy, healthy lifestyle and traditional medications, she seemed to be shaken a little bit, but........
"I shall ask Tua Pek Gong for comments", I think my ST elevated acutely.

If a person is willing to listen and believe what a lay person told them about their disease, why can't those with professional knowledge do the same charm? They rather believe the facts (posted by dono-who) on the internet, but not to take in a single word from us, a group of professionals who spent five endless years in med school, and many many more years ahead in order to understand the disease deeper, a group of people known as DOCTORS.

Why are our patients rather turning away from us to alternative traditional medication?
Our drugs are nicely labeled with contents and side effects. (at least you could win a lawsuit shall anything went wrong)
Herbs tasted a hundred million times worse than any of the tablets we could offer, but why are they willing to spend time to boil it from five bowls of water into one saturated bowl of.......well, you know how it taste like.

The only acceptable explanation I could think of is, these every other options give them hope. 
(even if it is a false hope)

"If you take this herb, the cancer will melt away, you will be fine in 3 months time!"
"My friend's mother's daughter's friend once was diagnosed with cancer, doctor said she only left with 3 months time. That was 3 years ago. After drinking this (dono-what health products), she is still alive. I met her last weekend, she just had a baby girl"
 
As opposed to how we sell our treatment plan.

"You will need to go for radiotherapy, where your skin might get burn, but no worry, we will give you some cream to put on it"
"You will have chemotherapy, where we inject very toxic medications into your veins to kill the remaining of the toxic tumors. You might feel nauseous or even vomiting, losing piles of hairs, having skin and nail changes. Ouh yea, your immune system are basically knocked down by the drug too, but no worry, we will take care of it".
"And despite all these, you might still have a recurrence and die from it"

You see why we fail?
They lost hope in us.
Apparently a crook does a better job than us.

We have what known to be the best treatment in hands, but have no idea how to sell it. Other healthcare-related faculties seems to have marketing included in their curriculum, why not ours?

We failed badly in encouraging our customers to use our products, we failed horribly in engaging them in services we provide. Despite being able to label them with fancy diagnosis, we failed every other thing.

Now, try selling that iron tablets to a pregnant mother, push a little harder, and be gentle!
You better make sure she takes it, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK!
(that's a good idea for OSCE counseling station?)


-FiShe-