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Welcome to Dr. Warrick's Podcast Channel. Warrick is a practicing cardiologist an author with a passion for improving care by helping patients understand their heart health through education work believes educated patients get the best health care discover and understand the latest approaches and technology in heart care and how this might apply to you or someone you love. Welcome to my consulting rooms. My name is Doctor Warrick Bishop and I'm a cardiologist. Today, I'd like to speak with you about something that is almost a soapbox for me. In fact, I could almost be standing on my soapbox right now. I'm not. I'm sitting here. The thing I'd like to talk to you about is medication. How you as a patient ought to be thinking about dealing with medication. Every day I have people come and see me and I ask them what tablets or medications are you on. More often than not the patient will say something like "Oh I'm not sure Doc" or "a little white one or its sort of brown and I have it twice a day" descriptions like that really don't help a lot. Patients will also say "don't you have it written in your notes there, isn't it in your file? Is it in the GP letter? Maybe you could call the pharmacist". The long and short of it is that it could be in all those places. But those locations don't necessarily line up and are not automatically updated. So when I see a patient or provide them with a script the GP records may not reflect that as they haven't prescribed it, the pharmacy may know it. As long as you've gone to the same pharmacy. The message here, is to the largest extent, is that the responsibility for what medication you take rests with you. And no one else. It rests with you. The example I use for my patients is very straightforward. I asked them to make sure they've got a very clear documented list of exactly what they take on a daily basis. On a small piece of paper or card that they keep in their wallet with their driver's licence or their Medicare card or other identification. If it's in their wallet or purse then if they were to ever have a problem the attending medical staff can look at that information and know what's going on. The medications really tell a story about your medical background and what conditions are being treated. And they help the medical community who are looking after you. The professionals looking after you know the best way to deal with exactly your requirements. This becomes extraordinarily important with drugs that may thin the blood. An example of that is the prevalence of the novel oral anticoagulant drugs such drugs as Xarelto, Pradaxa and Eliquis which are used commonly to thin the blood. Imagine the scenario, you're out, you have atrial fibrillation so you are on a blood thinner and for some reason, you trip fall over and bang your head. You're not at home where your pills are.You're not at the Doctor's surgery or pharmacist. You've Lost consciousness because of the bang on the head.... Do you think it's for people who find you? You bet it is! Identifingy quickly that you're on a blood thinning agent and that you've had a bump on the head that my lead to a bleed in the brain will improve your medical care. I don't want to sound like I'm making a pun but really it's a no-brainer. My strong advocacy is for you to be completely and utterly responsible for the medications you take and that you have that clearly documented whether you helped by family friends your pharmacist your GP even your specialist. Keep that list right up to date because it will give you the best possible care you can get and it will help the doctors nurses and other medical staff who may be looking after you. I hope that makes a bit of sense and I wish you the very best. Thank you. You've been listening to another podcast from Dr Warrick. Visit his website at DrWarrickBishop.com for the latest news on heart disease. If you love this podcast feel free to leave us a review.
Check out my book at http://drwarrickbishop.com/books/
