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To Hear My Father’s Doctor Physician Profile: Randall W. Porter, MD Round-up Staff
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hat happens when a son struggles to understand the details of his father’s doctor visits from nearly two thousand miles away? Perhaps it all gets lost in translation. Or maybe neither father nor son really comprehends the complexity of a cancer diagnosis and treatment plan. But if the son is a neurosurgeon in Phoenix and the father is a PhD-level economist accompanied by his wife - an RN - for doctor visits in Chicago, then perhaps it’s an indication that doctors and patients don’t adequately communicate with one another.
Dr. Randall Porter Medical Director, Neurosurgery Operating Rooms Director, Interdisciplinary Skull Base Program Barrow Neurological Institute
For Randall Porter, MD, it was an eye-opening experience. “I [thought] if only I could be there, I could really help him remember and understand what the doctors were telling him,” says Porter, currently the Medical Director of Neurosurgery Operating Rooms and Director of the Interdisciplinary Skull Base Program at Barrow Neurological Institute. “I then thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I had a videotaping of my father’s doctor visits?’” And so began an idea that changed the way a neurosurgeon practiced medicine.
Photos courtesy of Mike Paulson, Paulson Photo/Graphic Communications. Mike can be reached at photo@paulson.com or call 602-230-1550. 16 • Round-up • September 2014 • A monthly publication of the MCMS