Harlem Word: Northern Manhattan's Dr. Carlton McGregor tells people how to get the most out of their doctor's visits.

Dr. McGregor, MD, who practices medicine at  New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights where he was born and raised, talks about what you can do to make the most of the time you have with your doctor.

Q: What advice do you have for patients and families to get the most out of their doctor's visits?

A: There are two main things that patients can do:

1. Be on time. Even if the doctor is running late, it is important for the patient to be on time.

2. Be prepared.

• As patients, you should come to the doctor with a list of all of the medicines you are taking - or even better, the bottles themselves. This way the doctor can look at them and see exactly what you're taking.
• If you don't know your family medical history [1] off the top of your head, you should write that out before the visit too. This will save the doctor time during the visit.
• If you need a family member there to help you remember what your doctor is telling you, plan ahead to make sure that someone can go with you.
• Most importantly, write out a list of your complaints and the reasons for the doctor's visit. This way you can check them off as you go through them with the doctor or give them to the doctor at the beginning of the appointment, so he is able to decide the major things that he will focus on.

The more you can prepare before the appointment, the easier the visit will go.

Q: What about patients who have chronic diseases [2] like asthma [3] or diabetes [4]? What can they do between visits that can be helpful for doctors to understand what's been going on between visits?

A: People with chronic diseases [5] should do the same things as everyone else. In addition, the people who have chronic diseases that can be measured like high blood pressure [6] , diabetes [4] , or asthma [3]  should bring other important information:

• People with high blood pressure should bring their blood pressure readings and their blood pressure machine so the doctor can check that it is working correctly.
• People with diabetes should bring their blood glucose levels [7] so their doctor can see what their trend is over the past few weeks or month.
• People with asthma who have a peak flow meter [8], which measures how much air flow is leaving the lungs, should bring a list of numbers from that so the doctor knows if their treatment needs to be changed or not.

Read more from Dr. McGregor by clicking the links below:

• His experiences becoming a doctor [9]
• What older patients are doing to stay healthy [10]
• Mixing medicine and faith [11]
• Story about patient lowering her blood pressure [12]
• Getting tested for high blood pressure, diabetes, and HIV [13]
• Parents' involvement in children's health [14]
• What he likes best about being a doctor [15]
• Tips to be a better patient [16]

To listen to our interview with Dr. McGregor, click here [17] for our podcast page.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with Harlem health experts, written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.