Dr. Pauline Chen, as evident in her last few columns, is learning about being a doctor. Although she's gone through years of schooling and has been in practice for over a decade, Dr. Chen has been realizing and sharing with her readers that the ways of doctoring and healthcare are indeed changing.

In this week's column titled, "Letting the Patients Call the Shots," Dr. Chen writes about the benefits of letting patients have more of a say in the decision making process of medical care. Some examples, she explained in her column, include patient and family participation in 'the design of health care processes and services and would be a part of daily rounds."

The article, unlike most of her columns, turns out to be a question-answer session with Dr. Donald Berwick, a Harvard pediatrician and president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement stationed in Cambridge, Mass.

In his new journal, Dr. Berwick writes that, "We would all be better off if we professionals recalibrated our work such that we behaved with patients and families not as hosts in the care system, but as guests in their lives."

Click on the article below to read more highlights of Dr. Chen's interview with Dr. Berwick.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/health/04chen.html?ref=health