A while back, I wrote a column on good patient communication; but, I recently came across a situation that reminded me just how far we have to go to communicate effectively with our patients—contact lens or otherwise.

I greeted a patient for a follow-up visit, and before I could say anything, she smiled at me and said “I am here to see how my ‘wiperitis’ is doing.” All I could do was laugh and think seriously about calling Dr. Don Korb to tell him that we have been saying it all wrong. I have a sense that Don would have laughed at that too.

You see, we used to get it wrong by naming conditions after ourselves. In fact, this eponymous activity did little to enlighten patients or practitioners about the nature of the condition being described. Don’t believe me? Remember all of the confusing eponyms describing corneal dystrophies before the new classification system? Oh wait, you didn’t know that corneal dystrophies had been renamed?

Avoid Jargon

There is a laundry list of jargon terms that we use daily that glance off of our patients’ brains like a spacecraft coming into the atmosphere too shallow; patients will often smile at us and pretend to understand. They get home and tell their friends, “Well, he told me something was going on with my eyes, but I’m not quite sure what he said.” That is why patients often come into our offices and say that they are there because they have “keratocopia,” “cornacopia,” “keratoconica,” or anything other than what it really is.

How many of you have asked a patient which eyecare practitioner they saw last, and they could not remember the physician’s name? Seriously, if they cannot remember what you said to them, how do you expect them to remember who you are?

Terms Explained

As mentioned earlier, to make things more understandable, we have abandoned eponyms for more descriptive terms such as “lid wiper epitheliopathy.” However, while that descriptor is likely better than saying “Korb-Blackie disease” to patients, it is really the same kind of unintelligible gibberish.

Most of my patients are fairly well educated and capable of creating (in their own minds) a way to understand their condition—like “wiperitis.” I swear, I’m going to start using that term with my patients. However, many of us have patient bases who are not capable of blending cogent suffixes to root words in this way. So, we need to be extra careful.

Let’s consider another common eye condition—myopia. We often say “near-sightedness,” but is using that term really any better?

You can start by implementing what Richard Kattouf, OD, calls the “one-minute message.” It avoids naming the condition when talking to patients whenever possible. Tell them that their eyes are too strong and that their glasses or contact lenses will refocus their eyes for driving. Don’t use words like “distance,” “intermediate,” or “near” vision; instead use “driving,” “computer,” and “reading” vision. Then, give them written material that is as short and basic as possible about the condition. Can they read and understand that material in a minute?

When it comes to prescribing over-the-counter products such as rewetting agents or tear supplements, I don’t tell my patients about them, I show them. Create a file with images of the products that you recommend (such as specific contact lens care systems) and have patients use their cell phones to take a picture of it. What is it that they say about pictures and words?

Whatever you do, don’t talk to patients as if they are colleagues; rather, you should talk their language. CLS