You’re a Person not a Patient: One Doctor’s Priority When Meeting a New Patient

Establishing an authentic relationship with a patient and taking care to communicate in a thoughtful way should be a priority at that first meeting says Dr. Lawrence Piro, an oncologist and President and CEO of The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai. "People will run away from the disease and the treatment if they are too afraid of it and they're going to have fear if they aren’t learning about it in a way that makes them comfortable," Dr. Piro explains. Which is why he takes the time to get to know his patients as people so he can understand how best to convey what can often be difficult information to digest.