Dr. Louise Newson

But actually to have that time means that we don't have this cycle of people coming back so much.

So actually, you know, if I spend three or four times the time that I would spend as a 10 minute appointment in general practice, but actually that's probably worth two hours of them coming back and forth, you know, multiple times for those 10 minutes.

And I think it's a really important model because I feel very strongly as a doctor that I'm the patient's advocate.

Yes.

And you're not arrogant at all.

Whereas, I don't want to talk out of turn, but there are quite a few doctors that are arrogant and they want to be in control of their patients and

You know, when I was at medical school in the 80s and 90s, it was very unidirectional because there was no internet.

There was very little information available for patients.

So they would be handed their prescription and really asked no questions.

I'm the doctor, I'm in control.

And it's been wonderful to see how, for many of us, that consultation model has really changed and put the patient in the centre.

But the patient now has a unique advantage for having almost as much information available to them that we have.

You know, you can go into PubMed, you can read all the evidence, you can look at the guidelines.

Yeah, whereas years ago you couldn't have that.

And I think that's the same with wearables as well.

As you know, there are quite a few articles often in the medical press saying this is terrible that people are monitoring their pulse or their blood pressure or their stress or their sleep.

But I actually think more data is really important.

It's what you do with it and how you interpret it.

Yeah, I think it's really important.

And again, it's about ownership and choice.