In a recent blog post in The New York Times (NYT),  Letting Patients Tell Their Stories, Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, discusses the importance of giving people the opportunity to tell their stories in the face of a medical crisis or ongoing illness. 

As Dr. Khullar explains, physicians are, first and foremost, trained to diagnose and treat health problems. Secondarily, they are trained to provide comfort to patients who may be going through the worst or most frightening ordeal of their lives. All too often, Dr. Khullar suggests, doctors seem focused on treating the patient's physical ailment or condition, as opposed to the patient as an individual or the patient as a whole person. While this type of clinical or physical focus is surely understandable, particularly in light of a life-threatening issue such as blood clot in your lung, it may not always foster the most supportive or trusting physician/patient relationship. 

As this NYT blog post states, "A small but growing body of research [in Britain] has found that allowing patients to tell their life stories has benefits for both patients and caregivers." The research further suggests that providing a biographical account of one's past can help patients not only gain insights into their own needs in terms of care and healing, but can help build better relationships with their physicians by giving doctors a glimpse of the "person behind the patient." By helping to build these relationships between patients and the medical community, patients are made to feel more supported in their journey. 

We at the National Blood Clot Alliance have seen first-hand the positive impact of providing support through sharing patient stories. We began posting stories to our website back in 2013. Today, a growing number of patients reach out to us almost daily seeking to share their stories, while at the same time a growing number of other advocacy organizations now follow this proven NBCA path.  We are proud to be at the forefront of this movement. As a leader in the initiative to share patient stories with the thrombosis community, NBCA has helped to foster and nurture relationships among patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals alike. 

In fact, patient storytelling is one of the most successful awareness-building tools we work with to improve understanding about blood clot risk factors and signs and symptoms. Our website -- www.stopthclot.org  -- boasts 2+ million page views each year. Among the most frequently visited pages on our website are our patient stories. In addition, this past March, during Blood Clot Awareness Month, we were proud to feature one unique patient story every single day of the month. The response to this NBCA social media effort was overwhelming: Hundreds of thousands of people engaged with us via social media in just a few short weeks.  

Moving forward, NBCA has some exciting new plans for the development and delivery of its patient stories. If you would like to be a part of this new work, please visit our website for more information and to connect with us: Patient Stories. We look forward to meeting you and sharing your story too.