Return on (Time) Investment

For a number of reasons, the most precious commodity in today's medical world is, very often, time. Indeed, for those of us involved with the struggle against the ongoing obesity epidemic, it can be an especially important matter as every patient has his or her own very personal story...and that story is often the key to understanding how best to change the poor eating and lifestyle habits that got them to where they are. That requires investing some time.

For doctors who are working with patients to help them forge the healthy lifestyle they need to make real progress, it can be a challenge to carve out the time needed to really listen to patients and help them make the adjustments they need. When it comes to bariatric surgery, we often point out that, while procedures dramatically lower appetites and make weight loss a great deal easier, it's no magic bullet. Patients still need to make a variety of psychological and physical adjustments and, at Dr. Feiz and Associates, we work hard to help them do just that.

That's why were heartened to hear about a study published in the the journal Patient Education and Counseling. It found that patients who reported a better relationship with their doctor lost more weight in their attempts than others. While the number of pounds the patients lost in the study was a great deal more modest than the kind of results we regularly achieve in bariatric medicine, we believe more firmly than ever that every moment we spend working with patients, whether it's as part of a procedure or just speaking with them in our offices, really does pay off.