Seek The Best Treatment Available For Your Heart: Things To Look For In A Cardiologist

A city the size of San Diego is great because of the large numbers of doctors to choose from when you need to have work done, but this can be a problem because the choices are a little overwhelming. Choosing the right cardiologist is extremely important, as you will literally be putting your life in their hands, but how do you know where to start looking? During your search for a cardiologist there are several things that you need to look for and questions that you need to ask to ensure that you are getting a doctor that you feel comfortable with and one who shares your desires in terms of treatment.

Reputation In The Field

One of the biggest deciding factors when choosing a doctor should be how other doctors view him or her. Doctors who have a good reputation with their colleagues typically do so because they are involved in progressing the medical field and providing the very best customer care to their patients. The best place to get information about a doctor’s reputation is your own general practitioner. Ask your GP for a recommendation for a specialist to handle your cardiovascular issues and use that as a jumping off point to start looking for the right person to treat your condition.

Reputation With Patients

Another thing that you need to look for is how other patients talk about the doctor, something that is easy to do with a little bit of internet research. Message boards and other forums give patients the opportunity to talk about the experience with a particular doctor, and you can see an unfiltered opinion about other’s experiences. Though you cannot really trust that the opinions are entirely unbiased, if you see the same complaints or praises over and over again, you should be able to see a pattern emerge for the doctor.

Treatment Philosophy

You want to use a doctor that sees your treatment in the same way that you do, so finding a doctor with a similar treatment philosophy is vital. If you want to avoid surgery as much as possible, then you need to find a doctor who will put an emphasis on treatment of your condition through lifestyles changes and medication. Other treatment options, like the minimally invasive procedures found at the California Heart Clinic, may be more appealing to you. When you are searching for a cardiologist find one who already shares your treatment philosophy and do not try to get a doctor to change their approach just to meet your demands.

Manner

Finally, you want a doctor that you feel like you can approach about issues that you may be having, even after the treatment is completed, and the only way to do that is if you are comfortable with the doctor’s manner. Some doctors will have a warm and inviting bedside manner that make them feel more like a friend than a doctor, but that is not always the approach that a patient wants. You may be the type of person who wants their doctor to be more serious and clinical in their assessment of your situation and treatment, so you want to spend some time in the consultation making sure that the doctor you are thinking about choosing is one that you will be able to talk to down the line.

Choosing the right doctor is the first and step, and one of the most important, in better heart health. The level of competition in San Diego is high, but when you start to sift through the types of doctors that you want to be treated by and separate them from the rest, the list will grow much shorter and it will be easier to make a decision.

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My name is Kevin Dunham and five years ago my wife started to complain about numbness in her foot. A trip to the doctor revealed a blockage in her leg and we got the blockage addressed, but my wife was never happy with the way the doctor treated her. When the numbness returned she refused to go back to him until it was too late and we had to amputate the leg. I wrote this article to encourage you to find the right doctor to help you on your journey to better heart health.