Five Minutes to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System | Eva Lana Minkoff | TEDxSingSing

Fixing the United States healthcare system in just 5 minutes sounds like the stuff of myth and legends but Eva Lana Minkoff thinks she might just have a solution. Imagine a world where you leave the doctor’s office actually feeling heard, validated, and confident in the care you received. Eva thinks that could be our reality with just a few minor adjustments. With her researched system of doctor-patient feedback and communication, Eva’s insights on how to talk to your doctor might just turn your life around.

Eva Minkoff’s career experience in healthcare and lifetime of chronic patient experience has motivated her to pursue health system reform through championing effective patient-practitioner relationships. Eva is the host of the HumanCare Podcast, which supports her mission to improve global health through self-reflection and human connection.

[veroniquemead]

As someone who was once a doctor and who has been a patient for the past 20 years - I couldn't agree with you more about the importance of relationship as a critical and missing piece in our health care system and doctor -patient relationship. What a terrific talk with the examples you give and the 5 minute fix that builds trust and relationship. Thanks so much for sharing Eva and congrats for getting your work and word out!

[ThatMariahPerson]

Our healthcare system overwhelms me and breaks my heart. I've felt so defeated in it for 30 years. Been saying for 20 that we need a better way. I truly truly hope this is taken seriously. We all need to see some good changes.

[haeyounreichenberg]

So important point of medical system that it needs huge improvement and concrete steps of changing.
We needed someone speak out loud like her for a long time.
Thank you for the brave voice of yours!🙏

[amandamorgan]

You are absolutely correct! Looking back at the best healthcare providers I've had, they've all taken the time to get to know me. I used to be adamantly against seeing nurse practitioners because society has incorrectly led us to believe that doctors are better because they've had "better" schooling. One thing that the nurse practitioners and midwives I've seen have all had in common is care for their patients as a person, and it has greatly advanced the levels of care I've received. Don't get me wrong, I've had some fabulous doctors, too, but they've all taken time to get the bigger picture of my life, not just my medical history. The attitude of so many doctors has shifted towards the mentality that they know better than their patients because they have a better understanding of how the human body functions. In reality, though, it's often only a small part of the picture.
Thank you for fighting the good fight for better healthcare for everyone! We need more healthcare advocates like you!

[maryvosk]

This is such an important topic. My doctors have failed me, many times.
Worse, I have failed myself! Thank you for shining your Light on this.

[MeatsOfEvil]

Interesting premise! This needs to get around

[ComeAlivewithMK]

You got it!!! And we need to include THE FAMILY but too often they get dismissed and disrespected and looked down upon. They are experts of their own kind and need to be acknowledged-I’ve spent a lifetime being dismissed by health care professionals-making me entirely distrustful of the system and staying as far away from it as possible-especially all the polypharmacy!!!!

[susanmanber]

Such a powerful talk on how we can give physicians a truly holistic understanding of their patients to help them truly achieve better outcomes

[MedicalStudentfor]

: Eva makes some great points regarding the importance of building a meaningful doctor patient relationship. I appreciate how she comments on both the patient’s expectations and the physicians. As a current medical student, I understand the constraints that a physician has when seeing a patient. Even in our training we are constrained to approximately 17 minutes for a visit. Eva’s final comments really resonated with me, “Let’s bring human care back to healthcare.” This is why so many of us have gone into medicine. We have committed ourselves to serving our communities and providing them with the best possible care. Unfortunately, this can be forgotten due to the need for efficiency and cost effectiveness required by physicians in the United States. This concept brings some interesting dialogue regarding the medical ethical principles of justice vs beneficence. As for the pillar of justice, one could argue that the more time we spend with one patient is less time we have to spend with other possibly higher need patients. While I understand this argument, I prefer to focus on the pillar of beneficence. Doctor must understand that we are not superheroes. We cannot save or fix everyone, but what we can do is give every patient we see our undivided attention and provide them with the safety and respect to speak their minds. Overall, patients are responsible for their own health, but we need to provide them with the ability to choose what is best for them. This includes providing an environment that promotes patient autonomy and allows patients to be comfortable enough to tell them everything.

[alexanderfagelson]

Great talk Eva, covered some really interesting and thought provoking points.

[cfkbgke]

This is an incredibly eye opening TED talk. As a second year medical student, I hope to one day be the type of physician who takes the time to interact and get to know each and every one of my patients. There is a very deep connection between the body, mind, and soul, so I really like that Eva mentioned that if it is important to you as the patient, bring it up to your doctor. Unfortunately, I know that this is not the case for many people in their physician-patient relationship. I have shadowed multiple doctors who, due to severe time constraints and patient load, simply cannot get to know their patients very well. They would send the medical assistant in to get a history and the physician would go in to the exam room for about five minutes before moving on to the next patient. I noticed that this was a bigger problem when I shadowed at a volunteer clinic and clinic for low income families. When I shadowed other doctors at their private practice clinics, it was a very different experience and they had a very well established relationship with their patients. This all makes me think about the medical ethics principle of justice, where the goal is for there to be a fair and equal distribution of healthcare resources. With the current physician shortage we have in the United States, it is sadly not alarming that low income neighborhoods take the brunt of this shortage. As a result, the physicians who work in these areas are severely overworked and burnt out. I have always considered what can be done to alleviate this physician shortage and to create a better healthcare experience for these patients. I think that cities should look into ways to incentivize practitioners to work in these areas. But I also really like how Eva pointed out that a five minute assessment can make a huge difference. I understand that in a busy work day with multiple patients waiting to be seen, adding five minutes to each patient really adds up, but in the end the goal should be to treat the patient as a whole, not just as a walking symptom. The big picture is being missed in many cases and it is simply due to the fact that the patient and the physician do not have enough time to talk. Another solution could be to have medical assistants do what Eva did and do the assessment on the patient themselves before the patient goes in to see the doctor. That way any relevant information can still be shared with the doctors and it wouldn’t add too much time to the doctor’s already busy schedule.

[FunctionalMovementTherapy]

Such a great conversation. I love the fact that you see both sides and give actionable resolution to this HUGE problem we are having in the country! We need to see both sides and help to understand that we can no longer wait for the government to solve this problem but instead start making meaningful steps towards resolution together as practitioners and patients!

[cramsailsman]

This turned my life around, thank you, I will find a better health system

[drjonathanterry]

This is everything. Thank you for giving us hope and direction.

[kopmtre]

This was an incredibly inspiring talk, though the perspective may be a little easier said than done. As a current medical student, it is my perception that communication has been a subject of issue in medical care for a long time. There are numerous books, numerous studies demonstrating that physicians and patients do not communicate well. They talk, but they do not really communicate. I agree with Miss Minkoff’s proposal, and as a future physician I will absolutely attempt to ‘ask more’. Inevitably, there will be days (hopefully not many) where I will be rushed, and I hope I will have the willpower to slow down and ask my patients the right questions. The questions that will give me real answers, the questions as miss Minkoff described as pertaining to my patient’s life outside of their medical chart. Knowing how the hustle and bustle of day-to-day tasks consume my day currently, there’s great strides that need to be made if I am going to treat my patients in this manner. I imagine this would be the same for many physicians, who feel the pressure of administration to see their patients in a timely manner, spend less, and make more. Again, I say, this might be easier said than done. However, I agree that it should be done. As a patient myself, I have had doctors on both sides of the spectrum and there is no doubt that one side of the spectrum leaves me walking out of the hospital or clinic feeling much more respected than the other side of the spectrum.
Medicine is run as a business and with any great business model there is efficiency. I think efficiency has replaced meaningful relationships with patients. There is a biomedical ethical principle known as beneficence. I believe the way medicine is run today, there is a significant lack of ethical treatment of patients, mostly disregarding this ethical principle of beneficence. This biomedical ethical principle along with three others are at the core of medical care and decision making and seem to be lacking in today’s medical care. Though the ideas mentioned by miss Minkoff may be easier said than done, I think they absolutely should be done in order to restore what is most beneficial for our patients. I will strive as a doctor to implement these strategies in my patient care.

[wellbodisalone]

Teamwork is necessary to solve problems like this one.

[audreyr]

Deeply thought provoking talk. Important to listen right to the end.

[ankitjaiswal]

Best presentation I've ever heard around this topic. I hope more see this video. Thank you

[hangslow]

I think Eva brings up some very important points that can be quite uncomfortable to talk about. She brings up the idea that change in the healthcare starts with the doctor/patient relationship which I couldn’t agree to more. Yes, it is going to take systemic change to fix the healthcare system but where does one go with that? Eva brings it back to the basic fundamentals of relationships where anyone can relate to. I think this idea comes from the ethical idea of beneficence which is defined as an idea that there is a moral obligation to act for the benefit of others. If this is where patients and doctors build a foundation upon then change can happen. Instead of having the mindset that my doctor doesn’t understand me or my patients don’t understand me as Eva discusses, we can work together to fix the ‘Broken Healthcare System’. Focus on the aspects that everyone can contribute too and is a part of every time they interact with the healthcare system, that being the doctor/patient relationship.

[EthicsCommentary]

I’m surprised at how many Ted talks in the last year or two have consistently brought up the lack of communication and trust in the doctor-patient relationship and how it’s severely jeopardizing our current healthcare system in the U.S. As Ms. Minkoff stated, patients don’t typically feel heard by their physicians and physicians don’t feel their patients understand that doctors do have limitations, such as in treatment options. As with similar discussions on this topic of the lack of human connection in the doctor-patient relationship, doctors are consistently doing themselves and their patients a disservice. Doctors are taught about the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and patient autonomy. Beneficence entails that a physician provides the best care he/she can deliver to a patient, while non-maleficence entails that a physician does no harm to his/her patients. A physician’s ability to uphold these ethical principles seem to be at most risk when the relationship is haphazardly rushed whether it be due to a physician asking inadequate questions within the interview, not truly listening to the patients’ concerns or past medical, family, or social history or, simply not having enough time to build a foundation with his/her patients. I feel a physician should take a step back at times to reflect on his/her patient relationships and ponder what is causing those relationships to flourish or wither away. Everyone in their own occupations, not just physicians, can easily become swept up in day-to-day operations, meeting deadlines, pleasing supervisors, and working with current and new colleagues that take away from the original purpose of why a person may have picked that occupation in the first place. Therefore, physicians should not only remember to take care of themselves as that alone can truly affect their relationships with patients (i.e., burnout), but they should remember why they chose medicine in the first place. This simple reflection can assist physicians in not only connecting with their patients and building that necessary rapport, but also uphold the imperative medical ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence.