Dr. Jennifer Ligibel: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?
Why is it important to empower patients? Expert Dr. Jennifer Ligibel from Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute shares her perspective on how her career course in oncology has impacted evidence-based tips that she provides to empower her patients.
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Transcript:
Dr. Jennifer Ligibel:
This is such a great question. And honestly a question that really set my career course in focusing on supportive care for patients with cancer. Many years ago when I first started working in oncology, my patients would often ask me, after months of chemotherapy and radiation and surgery, “Dr. Ligibel, what can I do to help myself feel better, live longer?” And there wasn’t much to tell them at that point. And that’s really why I’ve spent the last 20 years doing research and figuring out what kind of treatment modalities can people do themselves to help themselves feel better, whether it’s exercise or weight management, or changing their diets.
I think for me, talking to patients, hearing about what their concerns are, offering hope, and really sticking now to what are evidence-based practices, to tell people that yes, you can exercise, you can eat healthfully, and those things will make a difference. They’ll help you feel better, they’ll help reduce the side effects you’re having from therapy. And although we’re still studying it, these behaviors are linked to better long-term outcomes. So for me, empowering people is about listening to them and providing them with evidence-based things that they can do to help themselves feel better.
