MS Speaks

Some years ago I was surprised when a person on my primary care doctor's staff referred to my doctor by her first name when talking to me, as in "Have you seen Phyllis yet?"  I had to think for a minute before I recalled that my doctor's first name was Phyllis. I just never thought much about her first name, and I certainly wouldn't have used it.


But it seems that patients are calling their doctors by their first names. Someone did a study, and though this paper isn't very clearly written, it makes a couple of interesting points--first, that most doctors don't like it when patients address them by their first names, and second, that women doctors are much more likely to be addressed by their first names than are men doctors.


From JAMA Network Open (October 5, 2022)--"Patient use of physicians' first (given) name in direct patient electronic messaging":


https://bit.ly/3ThzoJE