Mark Lewis: Things to discuss at the patient’s first visit

Mark Lewis shared a post by Suneel Dhand, Physician in Internal Medicine, on X, adding the following:

“Nutrition is important, yes, but your post belies just how much there is to discuss in the first consultation with a patient, let alone the “tinnitus of terror” that makes much of the initial visit difficult to retain

• treatment intent
• regimen composition
• side effects

… let alone taking a family history (“non-contributory” is often shorthand for not taken or at least only cursorily surveyed), social history (should be more than a checklist of vices, ideally), and patient goals of care, e.g. how to minimize time toxicity during treatment.”

Quoting Suneel Dhand’s post:

“Imagine being an oncologist (cancer specialist) and meeting a newly diagnosed cancer patient, and not even spending 30 SECONDS talking to them about resetting their metabolism by eliminating processed foods and minimizing sugars.

That’s OVER 95 PERCENT of all modern day oncologists. Completely clueless on the power of food.

And we don’t need the BS excuse: “There’s no randomized studies to support that”.

You DON’T need any studies for bloody common sense advice, that is obviously going to help improve outcomes.”

Source: Mark Lewis/X and Suneel Dhand/X

Mark Lewis is the Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, the Co-Chair of adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology in the SWOG cooperative group, and the Vice President of American Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Support. Dr. Lewis is also a well-known patient advocate and social media influencer.   .