In an Oct. 2 commentary published in Medscape, retired cardiologist Cleveland Francis Jr., MD, founder and former president of Mount Vernon Cardiology Associates, argued that physicians run into patient skepticism about their age at both the start and the end of their careers.
Early in his career, Dr. Francis sensed that some patients doubted he was old enough to make life-and-death decisions. He responded by encouraging them to get second opinions and by telling them he would consult senior colleagues on complex cases. He said those conversations usually built patients’ confidence rather than weakening it.
Near retirement, younger patients raised the opposite concern: whether he had kept up with new technologies and advances. The same approach eased their doubts.
Dr. Francis wrote that patients want honesty and humility rather than perfection. Because patients now arrive with information and misinformation from social media and artificial intelligence, he said, how they perceive a physician has become a central part of the relationship.
He said younger physicians need to pair current knowledge with humility so their confidence doesn’t come across as arrogance. Older physicians, he argued, have to show patients that they keep learning, because experience alone no longer reassures them.
“One must avoid the appearance of knowing too much; the other must avoid the appearance of knowing too little,” Dr. Francis wrote.
Dr. Francis is also the retired chair of the Inova Schar Heart and Vascular Committee on Healthcare Disparities, Education and Outreach.
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