Disclosing important health information to one’s personal family physician is exceptionally important for those doctors to be able to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities, and when their job is to assess and treat health care issues in patients, we can easily see how omitting important information could be harmful to both parties. While many patients may be reticent to share information regarding deeply personal and even potentially embarrassing matters, trusted doctors are both very experienced in dealing with a great many of these issues, and are bound by law to protect the privacy, confidentiality and dignity of those patients disclosing what are, to many of them, secrets, or at least sensitive material.

The five things a doctor must know are family history, patient history, patient symptoms, patient behaviors, and patient’s means of payment. Leaving out information in any of these areas can result in less than ideal health care, and may even cause further health complications suffered by the patient.

Telling doctors about family history helps them to establish whether or not there is a higher risk for some disorders than others.

Informing doctors of the patient’s own history helps them to being to put together a picture of how the body has been treated, and what sort of ailments may be occurring.

Describing patient symptoms to doctors is absolutely essential in establishing treatments and diagnosis. Without a full description of the symptoms suffered, doctors can not begin to assess the patient’s health and health care related issues.

Providing a history of patient behaviors relevant to diagnosis is important as well. A history of being a long-term smoker can help doctors make efficient and accurate diagnosis, and to prescribe appropriate treatments designed to alleviate the causes of the symptoms.

Finally, doctors need to know about payment and financing in order to do their jobs well.