1. I care about two things: does the doctor know what he's doing; does the doctor give a shit if I get better.
I'd say about 80% of the doctors I've seen in my life were dumb and incompetent, or didn't give a shit if I got better. They just kind of look at you with this begrudging look like "please stop talking and walk out so I can collect my check". They were all GP's. Frankly I dislike GP's a lot. I've self-diagnosed myself based on common sense better than a GP has on two occasions now. And he had to sheepishly walk back his cocky dismissal after the first time when his diagnosis was wrong and mine was right. Another doctor prescribed me a drug which I knew for a fact would wipe out my testosterone levels (just ignored the prescription). This is why I'm passionately against the prescription system. They don't deserve that power whatsoever.
The best doctor is genuinely interested in the medicine. Even if he treats you completely impersonally, like you're a puzzle, a machine to be fixed. That's fine. As long as he gives enough of a shit about it all to get the job done. For example, I introduced a new medicine I had found by research to one doctor, and he was like a kid in a candy shop -- spent 15minutes reading the documentation about it, and then wanted me to give a full report after I used it, like a guinea pig. That's fine. Contrast that with other doctors who just roll their eyes when a patient says "... on the internet".
2. More of a "how do I improve" mentality. Medicine seems to be about fixing very bad health (i.e. some magical threshold where you suddenly go from "healthy" to "sick"), not about improving mediocre health. There should be more investigative, health-optimization services. Instead of just constantly patching over problems with drugs, there should be more root-cause work.
I'd say about 80% of the doctors I've seen in my life were dumb and incompetent, or didn't give a shit if I got better. They just kind of look at you with this begrudging look like "please stop talking and walk out so I can collect my check". They were all GP's. Frankly I dislike GP's a lot. I've self-diagnosed myself based on common sense better than a GP has on two occasions now. And he had to sheepishly walk back his cocky dismissal after the first time when his diagnosis was wrong and mine was right. Another doctor prescribed me a drug which I knew for a fact would wipe out my testosterone levels (just ignored the prescription). This is why I'm passionately against the prescription system. They don't deserve that power whatsoever.
The best doctor is genuinely interested in the medicine. Even if he treats you completely impersonally, like you're a puzzle, a machine to be fixed. That's fine. As long as he gives enough of a shit about it all to get the job done. For example, I introduced a new medicine I had found by research to one doctor, and he was like a kid in a candy shop -- spent 15minutes reading the documentation about it, and then wanted me to give a full report after I used it, like a guinea pig. That's fine. Contrast that with other doctors who just roll their eyes when a patient says "... on the internet".
2. More of a "how do I improve" mentality. Medicine seems to be about fixing very bad health (i.e. some magical threshold where you suddenly go from "healthy" to "sick"), not about improving mediocre health. There should be more investigative, health-optimization services. Instead of just constantly patching over problems with drugs, there should be more root-cause work.