Danial Jilani, MD, MPH

Stephen Cov­ey once said, ​“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essen­tial ingre­di­ent in effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It’s the foun­da­tion­al prin­ci­ple that holds all rela­tion­ships.” I believe one of the most vital com­po­nents of a provider-patient rela­tion­ship is trust. Trust in com­pe­tence. Trust in hon­esty. Trust in patient out­comes. Trust in for­mu­lat­ing a treat­ment plan. I believe in build­ing a foun­da­tion of trust between myself as a physi­cian provider and a patient- to make the patient feel val­ued, feel respect­ed, and feel heard. Addi­tion­al­ly, I believe com­mu­ni­ca­tion is also essen­tial and that this goes beyond just words or explain­ing the risks and ben­e­fits of a pro­ce­dure or test. I believe in being avail­able for a patient whether it be dur­ing busi­ness hours or after hours. I believe in com­mu­ni­cat­ing hon­est­ly and effec­tive­ly. A core prin­ci­ple of mine is to treat patients as if they were my own fam­i­ly mem­ber. I’m often remind­ed of this excerpt from a recent arti­cle I read: ​“A strong physi­cian-patient rela­tion­ship involves good inter­per­son­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the devel­op­ment of a shared under­stand­ing that allows for reliance and trust, and ease of obtain­ing care, facil­i­tat­ed by the physi­cian serv­ing as a patient advocate.”