Data is the backbone of medicine. Without data, medical professionals cannot make informed treatment decisions. A patient diary provides data that doctors usually do not get to work with. By keeping a patient diary, you can give your healthcare team better insight into your condition and experiences. In this article, we will discuss what a patient diary is, what it can be used for, and how to start keeping a diary of your own.
(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and any diagnostic or treatment decisions should be discussed at length with your medical team before you implement them.)
What is a patient diary?
A patient diary can be as simple as a notebook or something as complicated as a document with notes and charts archiving your information. How simple or complex your patient diary is depends on personal preference, your condition, and your symptoms. Keeping a patient diary allows yourself and your healthcare team to see trends and gain deeper insight into your condition. The data from a patient's diary can allow for expedited diagnosis and treatment options by giving a clearer picture of their condition. Having concrete dates, times, and statistics can all be helpful for your healthcare team to make educated decisions.
What can a patient diary be used for?
A patient diary can be used for tracking things such as your sleep, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, meal times, hydration, symptom frequency, and symptom levels. Depending on your condition and symptoms, some types of information may be more valuable than others.
For example, if you are struggling with insomnia and would like to discuss starting a sleep medication with your doctor, it would be helpful to track your wake and sleep times, how many times you wake up per night, your eating and drinking habits, any medications you are taking, and any pain or discomfort that you are experiencing. Tracking your wake and sleep times and how many times per night you wake up will give your doctor a better idea of how many hours of uninterrupted sleep you are getting, as well as what kind of insomnia you may have (there are different kinds depending on what sleep disruptions you are experiencing). Tracking eating and drinking habits as well as what medications you are taking will give your doctor a better idea of whether something you are consuming is to blame (for example, caffeine too late in the evening). Also, making note of and pain or other symptoms you are experiencing can provide helpful clues to what the potential problems are (for example, if you are not able to sleep through the night because you are having to get up multiple times per night to urinate, a sedative likely will not fix your sleep problems).
Tailoring your patient diary to what symptoms you need to track is a helpful first step to compiling your data. To find out what information would be most helpful to track, you can set up a session to discuss it with your doctor, or you can go online and do research yourself. Typically, you can find some information about your conditions from reputable sources with a simple internet search. You do not need to know everything to track, but having a starting point is helpful. Otherwise, just tracking your symptoms is usually a good enough place to start.
How to start keeping your own patient diary
Starting to keep a patient diary can feel daunting, but it does not have to be complicated. It is best if you use something that is easy to duplicate so that you can give your doctor a copy, as they will often keep whatever data you give them. A text document on your phone or computer that you can print or email is usually good enough. Having a consistent and organized diary is important for your doctor to have a quick and reliable picture of what you are experiencing. Using the insomnia example again, let us take a look at what a patient diary would look like on November 7th, 2022:
Patient name
11/7/2022
Sleep
5.5 hours
6 nighttime awakenings
Food and Medications
7 a.m.
Coffee with eggs and toast
Multivitamin
12 p.m.
Soda and a sandwich
7 p.m.
Soda with steak and potatoes
Other Symptoms
Lower back pain
This patient diary gives an overview of the patient’s experience on November 7th. The writing is short and concise and the sections are labeled and divided clearly. By keeping your information concise and organized, it allows your doctor to quickly analyze the information you are providing. This diary entry shows several potential issues:
This patient is not sleeping enough and is waking up multiple times per night.
The patient is consuming caffeinated beverages with every meal and late in the evening.
The patient is experiencing pain which may also be contributing to insomnia.
From this information, the doctor may be able to recommend several things. For starters, the patient can try cutting back their caffeine intake and not consuming caffeine after lunchtime. Next, they may be able to try an OTC pain medication to relieve the back pain and see if those changes fix the insomnia before moving forward with a more intensive approach. Having these smaller issues to start treating first can help to prevent unnecessary medical treatments and save time and money for the patient.
Keeping a patient diary can be useful for giving your healthcare team a better picture of what you are experiencing and what treatment options may be beneficial. Keeping a concise, organized, and duplicatable patient diary will allow you to keep an ongoing and easy to read diary throughout your treatment. Filling out a patient diary only takes a few minutes a day and may be useful in expediting the diagnosis and treatment process with your illness.
Comments