The Lost Art of Doctor-to-Doctor Communication
In an era of electronic referrals and MyChart messaging, we need to spend more time talking about communication BETWEEN doctors.
If you take a birds-eye view of a hospital, you would watch scores of doctors walk in the same entrance, each proceed to a different room where they spend 90% of their day besides rounding on their patients, and then walking out the same exit. They might interact briefly in the chart, often referencing each in a note, but very rarely speaking face-to-face. Feels a little weird, right?
We’ve lost a sense of collaboration, and with it, a pretty magical interaction that is increasingly rare these days.
As a primary care physician, I find myself literally chasing specialists, trying desperately to get them on the phone for just 5 minutes. I've gone down every possible path—cold emails, LinkedIn messages, even attempting to score their pager number from clinic staff.
It's almost impossible.
And I want to be clear—it's not their fault. Our healthcare system simply hasn't built the infrastructure to support this interaction.
The gold standard for physician collaboration exists in tumor boards for cancer care, where oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, and pathologists gather to discuss complex cases. These structured, multidisciplinary meetings lead to treatment plans that no single specialist could develop alone. Another powerful example I've witnessed is in complex autoimmune cases, where rheumatologists and dermatologists collaborate in real-time to interpret ambiguous symptoms and lab results, often saving patients months of diagnostic uncertainty.
It's something truly special—the genuine definition of synergy. Together, we can:
Save unnecessary referrals
Eliminate redundant testing
Streamline care pathways for patients
Develop more comprehensive treatment plans
We fill in knowledge gaps for each other that typically get in the way of making great clinical decisions.
In my practice, I'm committed to reviving this lost art. Because when doctors actually talk to each other, everyone wins—especially the patient.
