Only 15 Minutes With Your Doctor? Ask These 4 Questions

What should you ask your doctor when the visit feels too short? Dr. Keith Balderston shares four questions to help you have a more useful conversation about your health. 1. What's actually happening with me? 2. Why is it happening to me? 3. Is there a way we can measure it? 4. What can I actually change? Dr. Balderston is a board-certified OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medicine physician. He discusses why blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol often appear together, and why a single test result is only part of the picture. His personal health story is one person's experience, not a promise of results. 0:00 Your next doctor visit 1:02 Meet Dr. Baldy 1:58 My friend's doctor visit 4:01 It's all connected 5:47 My own health story 7:46 What we'll do here 8:41 4 questions for your next visit 10:58 Bring your 4 questions Sources discussed: American Diabetes Association, Standards of Care in Diabetes: Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes. Hales CM et al. Prescription Drug Use Among Adults Aged 40-79 in the United States and Canada. CDC NCHS Data Brief 347, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/dat... Neprash HT et al. Measuring Primary Care Exam Length Using Electronic Health Record Data. Medical Care, 2021. The study reported an average exam of about 18 minutes; '15 minutes' describes Dr. Baldy's experience. This episode is general education, not individualized medical advice, and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Bring what's useful to your own clinician. Never stop or change a medicine on your own.