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Dr. Bo Walpole
Bill, Hi there. Welcome
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
to the biz communication Show. I’m your host. Bill Lambton, hosting the biz communication show in its seventh season, we’re very happy to have hosted so many terrific guests who share with us their communication expertise, their tips and strategies which help us and our business life. And that’s why I carry the tagline the biz communication guy. Our guest today is Doctor Bo Walpole. He’s a native of Gainesville, Georgia who spent the majority of his career in Nashville, Tennessee. He trained in interventional cardiology at Emory, but joined a small group in Nashville, because at that time, northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville had not developed interventional cardiology or cardiac surgery programs. Dr Walpole became the managing partner fairly early in his career, and that has become a significant part of his experience. His participation on numerous committees for the American College of Cardiology was also a big part of his professional life. In addition to his medical degrees, Bo earned an MBA from Emory to deepen his business knowledge when he left Nashville in 2012 his group, Saint Thomas Hart, was the largest group in Tennessee. Bo returned to Gainesville, Georgia, his hometown, and worked at Northeast Georgia Medical Center as Vice President of Clinical Affairs for four years, until he was unfortunately diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia after three years of treatment and surviving the COVID epidemic, Bo returned to part time clinical practice with the North Side Cardiovascular Institute. He is currently seeing patients in the Gainesville clinic two days a week. So it’s a pleasure to welcome to the biz communication show. Dr Bo Walpole, hello, Bo,
Dr. Bo Walpole
Hey, Bill, how are you today? I’m
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
just delighted to be hosting you, and having had many experiences of my own with doctors, I’m sure that I will learn, as our viewers and listeners will learn how we can improve that communication and those critical moments, just when conversations are taking place about the patient’s needs and how the doctor can address them. So one point I’d like to start with, and I know our viewers and listeners want to know is, what advice do you give patients now through our conversation here, what advice do you give patients who are coming to you or any physician for a first visit? What? What? How do you get the conversation going and and what do they need to provide in order to get the appropriate and helpful treatment?
Dr. Bo Walpole
Well, that’s a great question. Bill, we all see doctors, and the first visit to a doctor is really important because the the information that you give him is what he’s going to use as his basis for going forward, for making recommendations, both to you as the patient, but also to your primary care doctor, if you’re coming to me, for example, as a cardiology specialist. Oftentimes, I’ve gotten information from your primary care doctor ahead of time, and that’s always very helpful, but sometimes the information is are things that you know that your doctor may not know. So I think it’s really important to realize that in a doctor patient relationship, the information is confidential. It’s very important that you let your doctor know what’s going on, what symptoms you’re having, what medications you’re having or you’re taking, and the doses. I often tell patients just to bring the bottles with them the first trip, so we can be sure we know exactly what they’re taking, and then we’ll just go through what, what the problems are. What are you No noticing, and what, what things did you and your. Doctor talk about that we wanted to talk about in my specialty office.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Well, there are a couple of things related to that that just popped into my mind. One is for the average patient, and maybe even for somebody who’s been a patient for a long time. There’s some inherent, almost inescapable, tension about going in to see a physician and talking about what could be wrong with you, or what you suspect is wrong with you. So one point I’d like for you to address, and it’s very important. How do you set the tone, keeping your professional status, of course. But what do you do to have I don’t know if I would say totally relaxed, but I would say a comfortable tone, so that while you are still in the doctor’s stance, you are someone who all of a sudden, the patient realizes I can communicate quickly and easily with this physician. How do you set that stage? Bo, yeah,
Dr. Bo Walpole
well, usually what I do, Bill is, I will talk to the patient a little bit when I first come in and introduce myself and ask them a couple of questions about what’s going on in their life, or if it was raining, I’ll ask if they had trouble getting in. We’ll just talk about other things than medicine for a minute or so. Sometimes during the fall I will, I will bring up college football, something that just relaxes people. We talk about something like that for just a minute or so, and it lets them kind of get comfortable with me. I don’t think I’m a very intimidating kind of person anyway, but I think there are doctors who are a little more stiff and formal, and it’s, I think it’s more difficult for them to get people to relax and then begin to talk about their problems.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I think that’s very solid. And as you know, I am a professional speech coach, and that’s one of the things that I really and not only insist on, but that I teach and I measure and I teach again on the topic of the first three minutes of a presentation of any kind are critical. And if you can capture attention and also, and I hadn’t thought of this combination, capture attention, but relieve tension. That’s a very good combination. And you’re talking about the weather, our sports, our maybe activities going on in the community are a popular TV show. Have you seen this, or whatever that that that personalizes the event so much? Now, related to this, all right, we’ve we’ve got the situation going. We now have the patient, where the patient feels there is a a cordial atmosphere, receptive atmosphere, not just a judgmental atmosphere. Then there comes the problem which I’ve encountered and many patients have, and that’s the problem of medical terminology. The medical profession, like the legal profession, like the engineering profession, they all have their own lingo. The medical lingo is, is foreign language to to the average patient, because we haven’t been through the training, we we don’t know the terms. How do you get past that in a in a clarifying way. Bo, yeah,
Dr. Bo Walpole
well, that’s a great point, Bill, because especially in cardiology, people are scared, and it’s naturally something that they’re worried about. They know that cardiology problems can be fatal, and they are naturally concerned, and oftentimes that concern can turn off their brain a little bit, and they they don’t really think and filter quite as well. So once again, I try to go through things and not use big, big words, big terms. I try to bring it down to what makes sense, just if you’re having chest pain, for example, rather than, say, myocardial infarction, I’m going to talk about your chest is hurting because it’s not getting enough blood flow. You know, we just break it down to something that makes sense and and also, I want that to lead to what I want that patient to do to correct the problem, or to either to take a medication or to begin some sort of exercise. Or whatever the problem is. If they understand what the problem is, they’re more likely to do the things we need to do to get it better.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Good old translation into plain language. I’ve, I’ve often said big words belong only in the dictionary. And of course, the medical terms are, are are big words, and they’re, they’re foreign too. So it’s, it’s great that you do the the translation. Okay, we’ve set the stage well, for the patient to talk with us. There could be times when, for some reason, and you can explain what that reason would be, a patient doesn’t give you all of the relevant and needed information. What are the consequences? What what are what are the risks that a patient takes if they choose not to tell everything?
Dr. Bo Walpole
Well, that’s a great point bill, and it’s something you really have to tease out sometimes. Let me just take a very obvious example. What if the patient doesn’t tell you all the medications that they’re taking? There can be drug to drug interactions with new drugs that I had, if I don’t know what they’re on, that is a real risk. So that’s why I try to get people to bring all the bottles of medication there that they are on in to let me look at them, and of course, I’ll also look at them to see if they’re full or half full. Are they taking the drug? Those are all important things to know about. And that’s probably the most obvious example. I think the other one would be, though, is there some reason why this patient would not be telling me about some type of symptom? Could he be concerned about his job situation, or is there some other reason why he’s not telling me the whole story? So I usually just try to tease that out with questions around the periphery, just to get them talking about it. And sometimes the answers will come out at that point. But with cardiology, many of the things that we do can really affect other illnesses that people have, whether it’s pulmonary problems, chronic lung disease, certainly, those who have liver problems or digestive problems will not digest and process the medications that we give them, so all that stuff is really important for me to know, so I get them on the right course of treatment. And, and they have a good idea of what’s going to happen down the road.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Yes, and, and there are some patients, I suppose, who are who are just so reserved ordinarily, that even their family, they might not discuss what should be discussed. And but you have gotten past that barrier, probably with your intro, which not only keeps your medical status prominent, but also sets a rather informal setting too. Yeah,
Dr. Bo Walpole
yeah. I think it’s really important to get people at least subconsciously comfortable talking to me. They need to feel comfortable that what they tell me goes no further, and that what they tell me is important for me to help them so they want to tell me all of this information.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Thank you so much. And in a couple of minutes, just a minute or so, we’re going to talk next about what doctors should be asking the patients. We’ve talked first about what patients should ask the doctors, but we’ll be back to cover that in just a few seconds.
Speaker 1
Do you wish you felt confident about giving speeches? Do you want to deal with difficult people constructively? And what about becoming more persuasive in sales, then keep listening now to Dr Bill Lambton. He spent 20 years in management, so he knows the communication skills you need for success. I urge you to call the biz communication guy today for a no cost, but very valuable, 30 minute discussion about your communication challenges. Call now 678-316-4300, again. That’s 678-316-4300,
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
we’re here with Dr Bob all Paul on the biz communication Show. I’m your host. Bill Lampton, the biz communication guy, we’re discussing medical conversations between doctors and patients, and we come now. Bo to another segment. We’ve talked about what patients should be asking the doctors. So let’s. Just get the reverse of that. And what should doctors be asking the patients? And how should they ask?
Dr. Bo Walpole
Well, I think there are two categories of questions in that to answer that question. Bill, first, there may be specific information that I need. I have specific question about a symptom they’re having, or possibly a medication they’re taking, or some activity. So I’ll ask those things specifically. But I also think the second thing is open ended questions, how do you feel about so and so? And get them talking about that and how they feel about it, and what that tells me a little bit is, how important is it to them? How is how much is this affecting their life, and how concerned are they? Those all play into how well they’re going to participate in getting better, what, regardless of what the treatment is, I need to have a feel for how they’re concerned about their problem. So I think those two ways are what I try to do to pull some of that other information out.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
What about the non verbal side of this? Some doctors might stand at a distance. Some might sit on the by the examining table. Are there any keys that you have found especially helpful along those lines. Well,
Dr. Bo Walpole
I usually talk to my patients in a seated position, with them seated as well. Sometimes the nurse will have already had them seated on an exam table, but most of the time, I like to have them seated at a comfortable chair, and I come in and sit at a chair with a little desk where I can write notes. I’m an old school guy. I still write notes. I don’t type them directly into my computer. I know there are many people who do. I’m just not that good at the keyboard. To be quick about it, but I like to be on eye to eye level with my patient. I don’t like to stand over them, and I think that makes them more comfortable to just to sit and talk between two people. I think that really helps wonderful.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I applaud that I was in management situations for a couple of decades before I became a professional speaker, speech coach and Communication Consultant. And one of the problems I found with many managers was that they they use the the setting as sort of a power play. For example, there were many times I had a supervisor who, when I walked in, they were sitting. It almost looked like behind the throne, a very huge desk and the chair for the guest who was coming in. I guess you’d say a guest, our employee, was maybe 15 feet away. It reminds me of J Edgar Hoover. The long time, I think, over 30 years FBI director, J Edgar Hoover was a very diminutive guy, and so to when he had people brought into his office, they didn’t see a diminutive guy, they saw J Edgar Hoover almost elevated to a throne his he had his chair and his desk quite high, and there was a purposeful and how do I want to Say it a superiority factor. There a status factor, and so your way is very commendable, so that your eye to eye, you are near them, you’re not typing into a computer, and they they then have much more incentive to get into a real conversation. And this, in my opinion, would help them open up more than otherwise. The next stage of the doctor patient relationship that we need to explore for a couple of minutes, and that is the doctor to doctor conversations, and this, as you explained to me, would be when, for example, you have a patient who has been referred to you by another physician. So what you need to learn, I would think, is not only the paperwork that you get, but have a live conversation about this patient. Tell us about how that happens.
Dr. Bo Walpole
Well, I think certainly it happens a great deal for physicians who are in specialty practices like cardiology. We. Often have patients referred to us by primary care physicians, and they’re doing it for a specific reason. So right off the bat, I need to know what their question is. What Why are you sending this patient to me? What information can I give you that will help in his care? And so oftentimes that we’ll start with that just what is going on? What are the symptoms? What are you concerned about? And then I’ll get into more detail. What medications are they on? What other illnesses do they have that you’re treating currently? How might those be affecting their cardiac situation? And then if there are any other social issues that may be significant in this patient, for example, if they have no family to be supportive, I need to know that. It’s helpful for me to know that I’ve got to make arrangements for transportation if they have no transportation for testing, for example. And I guess the other thing would be just how how concerned are is that patient with his illness? Sometimes the doctor that is referring is more concerned than the patient. They don’t really understand what’s going on. And so I need to get that feel so I can communicate that when I see the patient. I think those are the biggest things that I do off the bat, many of the referring physicians with whom I communicate now I have known for only a couple of years, the doctors that I saw in Nashville I worked with for almost 30 years, and I knew them so well. When they would call, I would know pretty well what they were calling about. They would know what I needed, and so it was a very efficient conversation. I’m going through all that again now, as I have joined this wonderful practice here in Northeast Georgia, but I’m having to learn the doctors learn their their quirks and their interests and how they present a patient to me. So it’s the same old process, but communication is so important, because I can take better care of that patient if I know what we’re doing,
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
excellent. There’s time for a vital question, and that is, you see many patients, I would assume, who have had a problem identified and the cardio and the heart situation. And so there’s a lot being said about and you mentioned this when we had a preliminary discussion. You talked about work, life, balance, What? What? Three or four steps would you give us to keep us hopefully, to at least safeguard us as well as we can from getting cardiovascular problems?
Dr. Bo Walpole
Yeah. Well, I’m glad that you asked that about the patient bill, because if you ask me about my work life balance, it would be a short conversation. I’ve never I can’t say that’s one of my strong suits. Let’s just put it that way. But as far as patients go, I think just beginning to understand what affects your heart, what affects the reasons why you might develop cholesterol in your coronary arteries. For example, what are things you can do in your life to still have a very good and fulfilling life, but to just avoid some of those big problems, like blockage in the arteries, which leads to heart attacks, which can lead to heart failure or significant arrhythmias that require a lot of fairly aggressive treatment. What are just the simple things you can do? And so I try and work that in when I’m getting to know a patient about first, their diet, about their medications, about their physical activities. Do you walk 30 minutes a day? Do you exercise at a gym? Those are all things that I try to find out. Unfortunately, many of my patients don’t do those things, and particularly for people who are over 60 or 65 years I just think it’s so important to stay active. Just physically active. If all you do is walk, that’s fine, but do it on a regular basis, and those things are very good for prevention.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Hey, you and I see each other when we’re out walking our our dogs. And this neighborhood has other dog walkers, and it has people who just walk, even though they don’t have pets, and the the exhilaration is is, and the companionship you get from that they they also contribute to good health. I think I’m thinking, with New Year’s just around the corner, there are many of us who will. Make New Year’s resolutions about you know, as you and I know, gyms and fitness zones, their parking lots will be full the first three weeks of the new year. The ones who are going to be enjoy ongoing good health are those who stick with it beyond that. So yes, as much as we talk about cardiology, you you not only you’re you’re happy to treat patients, but you also are happy to to have preventive care as well, or even curative care, because it works at both ends. I’m sure, oh, this has been a highly enlightening conversation, and I know that our viewers and our listeners on the biz communication show have benefited from your medical expertise and what you have explained, please give us your contact information. Well,
Dr. Bo Walpole
sure, Bill, I’ll be glad to I work for the North Side Cardiovascular Institute. That is the name of our group, and that group is based primarily at a couple of North Side hospitals in Atlanta, in Gwinnett and in Forsyth, I work out of one of our clinics in Gainesville, and we have multiple clinics around the Northeast Georgia area. Probably the best contact number I can give is 404-962-6000, if they call that number, they can get plugged in with one of our doctors, and what we try to do is to see the patient at whatever clinic is closest to that patient’s hometown, and then get them plugged in with one of our doctors. I have a number of really good young and middle career partners now, and as I mentioned, I don’t do the procedures anymore myself. I send them to my partners when they need those, but I’m very comfortable with that. We have a really good system where after they do the procedure, they either pick up the phone and call me, or they send me an email to say, you know, Mr. Jones had this, and this is what we’re going to do. And then when I see that patient back in the office. I’m completely plugged in when he walks in the door. So it’s been a pleasure for me to work with this group.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Well, thank you for that contact information, and I’m very happy to share mine now my YouTube channel, Bill Lambton PhD, I encourage you to go there. I’ve been producing instructional videos, many of them solo instruction. And yet, as I said, this is the seventh year of the biz communication show, where I not only share my communication tips and strategies, but I bring in experts from a variety of professions, true leaders, who also share their tips and strategies. And then also, I invite you to go to my website, since my tagline is biz communication guy, quite logically, my my website is biz communication guy.com and while you’re there, you can subscribe to the podcast, and just as Bo Walpole shared his phone number, mine is 678-316-4300, invite you to call and describe for me your communication problems and challenges for an initial call, no obligation, no fee. Be delighted to discuss those with you. Bo, I would ask you now we’ve, we’ve had, as we know, a stimulating and helpful conversation. How would you sort of pull together and 30 seconds or a minute, what you’d like to leave with our viewers and listeners?
Dr. Bo Walpole
Well, Bill, I think the most important thing for patients to know is that when they’re going to a doctor, he’s there to help them, he’s he’s not trying to catch them or find anything out that’s, uh, detrimental to them, he’s trying to help. And they need to create a feeling of trust, and they need to be very clear and open with the problems they’re having, the symptoms they’re having, the medications they’re on, other illnesses that are being treated by other doctors that gives them the best chance to get a good result, and that’s really what we want. Most of the time, doctors will see a patient as long as they’re needed, and then they’ll just put them down as come back when you need me, if it’s just a specialty thing like ours, if it’s not something we have to follow long term, but if it is, then let’s turn. About it when? How hard is it to get to see me? Could we be seeing you at a different location that would be more convenient? All of those things are important, but I think it really boils down to developing trust. I just think that’s so important.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
You have, as you described, a very fine way of doing that at the outset, with a patient. Thank you, Dr Bo Walpole, for being with us today. It’s been a personal and a professional privilege to host you, and I know that the medical advice that you have given will be very beneficial for all of us. Thanks to those of you who joined us on the biz communication show, the video portion, the audio podcast part, we invite you to be with us again next week so you can have more communication, communication tips and strategies that will boost your business.
Unknown Speaker
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