Jaime Lewis (Host): Meaningful Medicine is a Novant Health podcast bringing you access to leading doctors who answer questions they wish you would ask. From routine care to rare conditions, our physicians offer tips to navigate medical decisions and build a healthier future. Today, I'm sitting down with Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, a Primary Care Physician, to talk about finding and building a strong relationship with your primary care doctor. Before we get started, Dr. Igbokwe, how did this become a passion of yours? What made you want to become a family physician?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: Thanks for having me today. Well, I really wanted to be a family medicine physician, I think really most of my life. I grew up in Nigeria, and in Nigeria, we just didn't have as much access to, I guess, specialties and things like that. So our family physician was our everything, right? He also happened to be my godfather. So I kind of grew up getting to know him and seeing what he did for our whole family. So for me, that's what I always pictured medicine was, taking care of the whole family, being able to kind of help us navigate through little hiccups that come with a big family or come with other complications.

So it's always been a passion of mine and I know my family is always going to come for me to ask me questions, so I might as well get really trained in that. So that's what I, really love doing and I continue to follow it here.

Host: That's wonderful. Well, can you explain the role of a primary care physician in a person's lifetime of care?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: Definitely. A primary care physician, their whole job really is to be kind of the navigator of your health care, right? So I think of us as, you know, it's football season, so we'll say quarterback, as somebody who's able to get the information and then help to distribute to areas where it's needed.

I see it as somebody who can hear you, who can see what is important to you. And that's why I really feel the relationship with your primary care physician is really crucial for everybody healthy or not healthy, or just trying to navigate health because my job really is to get to know you and see what's important for you, and then make sure that we're covering all thosescreening things that are the things that we, tend to worry about as we get older. But if those things aren't really ticked off, then if you come in with an acute care problem, right, you're not able to answer that or steer people away from is this cancer to is this okay? If we haven't done the preliminary.

So I think the role is really just getting to know the person, having somebody you can kind of say, Oh, this is weird. Or wow, I'm really scared about this. Or this is a new diagnosis. How do I do this? So a navigator of the healthcare system and somebody to help you hunt and gather information that's important to you and then help you decide what's the next step and where do we go from here?

Host: Relationally, person to person, why is it important to have a strong relationship with your primary doctor?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: It's really about being open and honest with your physician. But how do you get there if you don't know this person yet? If somebody you just met yesterday and you don't know if you trust this person's judgment, does this person understand what I see for my life or what my fears are in my life or what I'm trying to get accomplished in my life, right? So that relationship really has to be on trust and communication. So I honestly tell patients, the first time I'm like, hey, today I'm doing a physical, I wanna get all the information. I wanna get, spill the information that you've had buried in your head that keeps you worried sometimes at night, but let's see what happened in the past, what's happened in your family, what are the things that have preceded you, and then what are you doing today? And I ask you these questions they're open ended, and there's no judgment in that because I want to know what I should look out for.

So if you're somebody who is in a high risk relationship or you're somebody who is more sedentary than this, then I want to say, okay, this is where you are. These are the things I need to do. And that way I can, see what the lay of the land is at first. And I think, when you trust somebody and you're able to communicate what's going on with you, then you can kind of say, okay, at least I've had that part handled there too.

Host: If someone doesn't currently have a primary care doctor, how do you recommend that they find the right fit for them?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: And it's really surprising because a lot of healthy people who don't have chronic medical illnesses, even though it says, about 60 percent of the U.S. adults have chronic medical issues, a lot of people just don't have primaries. So it's trying to look for one. Thankfully, we have a system where we have insurance, and in our insurance system, then people are able to go into your portal or a list of physicians who are available to you. I say you start there. A lot of the bigger companies, you can definitely accept most of the insurances. So it's not something where there's a big gap.

Unless you're uninsured or have lower insurance, then it is really important to start there first. And I always ask, who are your friends seeing? Who's somebody that you trust, whose health journey you admire, or who you're just like, hey, I know this person had something happen and now because of them, I want to look at something.

So who are they seeing? And then when you go in to meet somebody, go in with an open mind and go in and get to know the office because I think that's all part of your healthcare. Because how accessible is the physician? How accessible is the office? How quickly can I get in to see him for something I think is urgent?

Or, how can I make sure that I set up things for my next visit and follow up is on there too. So again, it's, not really a friendship, I think, but it is really kind of important because those are the same qualities I look for in my primary care.

Host: Yes. Well, what kinds of questions do you want to hear your patients ask in their appointments?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: I think the questions I want patients to ask me, because I do want to make sure you're understanding the things I'm saying right back to you, right? So if we're talking about chronic diseases, let's say we have a diabetic patient. I want to understand that you know what your A1C means, that you know why I'm concerned about your blood pressure. So ask me like, what are the goals of my care? So I'll use diabetes as an example, what A1C am I aiming for? I follow up, you said my A1C changes every three months, right? So are we following up in three months or six months?

And usually, if someone's in good control, then I can space them out a little bit and say, Hey, I'll see you in six months instead of three, cause you're doing a great job. So follow up things. And then I think it's really important to keep up to date with your screenings, So when am I supposed to do a colonoscopy?

When do I do a mammogram? When do I need my tetanus shot? I think I got one in middle school. Like, am I supposed to get another one? And those things that might not be familiar to others, but these are things that I can also ask and keep them up to date. But I really, do encourage people to think about these things and write them down before they come into the office.

Cause I think a lot of times you get in and if you feel like you're being rushed or you feel that it's a busy day, then you kind of forget all those things that you had in mind. So write them down and that way we can go through that list and it helps guide your visit and also helps us make sure that all your things are answered.

Host: Can you give us a few quick tips to a patient who's maybe worried about how to build this really important relationship?

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: Of course, research is a big thing for all of us these days. We have lots of information from the websites that can tell you what this person is interested in. But I really think it's you looking into yourself and saying, okay, what do I need accomplished? If my friend was just diagnosed with colon cancer and I'm worried about colonoscopy, and I think this is the age where I am. I honestly have a fears list that I have people write and just let me know. And then I say, how do we combat that? We combat it with information. So I think when people come in, the best thing is really to give us the information.

And I think if you have a great physician who's going to sit there and say, hey, tell me about your past. Tell me about your present, then it can kind of help to guide that. So I really counsel people not to be concerned or worried about information that they have to know. Oh, I have to know all these things before I get there.

I say just come in. First thing is always schedule the appointment. A lot of times, yes, your appointment will be a couple weeks to a couple months ahead of time. So you do have time, but if you keep waiting to schedule it before you know it, another year is on. So the first tip for me is always, hey, schedule the appointment.

Just put it on the books. Have your phone remind you and then just show up to the appointment there and be open and be honest and then we can go from there. And I think once you get into the office, your physician's able to help guide you through these steps. And this is not a huge thing that you have to worry about.

And the great thing with EMR now electronic medical records, we can look up information in other systems and can help supplement that information. So not being concerned about, I don't have everything, I don't know anything, just schedule the appointment first, come in and just be open and be honest and sit there and listen and then, it's a two way road so that you can express your views and then we can let you know how things look and what we can do to optimize it.

Host: I like it. Good recommendations. Thank you, Dr. Igbokwe for joining us today.

Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe, MD: Thank you, Jaime. It was a pleasure.

Host: Once again, that was Dr. Onyinye Igbokwe. To find a physician, visit NovantHealth.org. And for more health and wellness information from our experts, visit HealthyHeadlines.org. And thanks for listening.