What do you (as people with HBV) wish clinicians would know?

Hi all,

I do see a few posts talking about difficult and unpleasant experiences with the health care system and doctors.

I really think this is an important issue and means fewer people are getting the care that they need. I wanted to have a thread to discuss this and for patients to talk about:

  1. Things they think doctors and other clinicians are not considering in their experiences and should understand
  2. things that doctors and clinicians could do to make it better.

This is not just a vent session; we have quite a few @HealthExperts here on the forum who could take some of the more actionable items here and make change in policies. There of course are no promises that this could change the experiences, but at least it will start the conversation happening.

Hope to hear from you all,
Thomas

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Thomas, this is a great idea. Many of us on here help develop educational materials and programs for clinicians, and having thoughts and ideas from folks in the Community would be very helpful as we develop future programs. Look forward to hearing from people about this!

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With my experiences, I wish ANY of my family Drs would have taken into consideration my age and that I wasn’t vaccinated. Here in Ohio there are mandatory vaccinations for all children. HepB & A are both given to children since 1997 as part of their mandatory vaccines. I am in an age group (I’m 52) that HepB & A were not mandatory. Never, in all of my years seeing a family Dr did they mention I should protect myself and get the vaccine. Until my husband got HepB, I really never considered it an issue to worry about?
With the vaccine being able to stop the spread, I would think any family physician would inform the generations missed by the mandatory shot how vital it is to preventing the spread?
Just my thoughts…

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Great points, @SamanthaMech. Yes, I don’t think it’s on doctor’s radars unless it’s part of a job check (e.g. for becoming a cop or doctor, you would get these vaccines done). In Australia, there are people in public health pushing for universal screening to know your HBV status (chronic carrier, vaccinated, or vulnerable/unvaccinated), so that people who are not vaccinated know to get their vaccine. Not sure if there are also moves for this in the US (any input, @chari.cohen?).

TT

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