In an article about the factors that keep people from accessing hospice, Dr. Gazelle is quoted about the need to educate physicians about how to discuss options when there is no cure. She also acknowledges the vital role that caregivers play in these discussions, “It is critical that families feel empowered to name the truth and not wait for the physician to initiate the discussion,” she says.

In today’s economy, getting healthcare is even more difficult than in the past. In this article about what to do if you lose health insurance, Dr. Gazelle comments on ways to work with your doctor to lower their fee.

In this article about for-profit hospitals, Dr. Gazelle comments on the risks of hospitals being owned by insurance companies. “The financial incentives have been completely skewed over the years. Changing those incentives is a positive thing, but experts have to watch that they do not go so far in the other direction that patients are denied care when they need it.”

In response to a journalist querying physicians about the impact of board recertification on career decisions, Dr. Gazelle expresses her view that the boards focus too much on rare diseases never seen by generalists and not on the basic knowledge every internist needs for practice.

This article explains the usefulness of patient advocacy, the various ways a patient advocate can help a caregiver or person with an illness, and how to find the right patient advocate for you. MD Can Help is one of the featured patient advocacy practices.

Dr. Gazelle shares tips on how to cope if you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer.

Participatory medicine is a new “buzz word” for a type of patient advocacy. In this article, Dr. Gazelle notes “presenting information in a conversational way, as opposed to a way that portrays the physician as the boss, can make for more productive interactions. When given all the facts, patients and doctors usually reach a well-informed, mutual decision. Technology is just one way in which patients can become engaged in their care. Physicians can engage patients simply by changing the way they talk to patients.”

In an article about physicians not treating nurses as equals, Dr. Gazelle was quoted: “Much of this stems from the different ways doctors and nurses are trained. Doctors are taught from the beginning that they are the head of the team, that they are better than nurses, that the skill set of nurses is inferior to their own. This leaves them feeling entitled to put down nurses and mistrust their judgment.” “Nurses need to feel empowered to take on the over-arching authority of physicians and see themselves as equal partners in the care of patients,” Gazelle added. “Some of this can be in the nursing curriculum and much is on-the-job. Obviously, for the latter, nurses need institutional backing for this to be successful and, fortunately, a number of initiatives have come to the fore.”

In an article about the murder of an elderly man with Alzheimer’s, Dr. Gazelle speaks about how difficult it is for people caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or any other form of dementia. “The demands on caregivers are almost unfathomable. The anger, guilt, and shame that caregivers experience is intense.”

In a feature story about MD Can Help, six basic functions of Dr. Gazelle’s patient advocacy work are highlighted: “1) making sure you are treated well; 2) acting as a sounding board when new issues arise; 3) serving as a second pair of ears to take in information; 4) paying attention to details; 5) ensuring that errors are not made; and 6) seeing that things come out as well as they possibly can.”