The impact of first impressions during a physician visit:
Whenever I enter a room with a patient in it, I try to stop in the doorway, and before anything else happens, I take in the scene. I want a look before my impression can be biased by information or personality or anything but the overall clinical picture. Most doctors do this, or try to. It’s called the doorway survey, and it can be the most important moment of your appointment. That moment in the doorway provides the context for everything else that happens, steering your doctor as he or she tries to figure out which parts of your story to pay attention to, which parts to ignore, which parts need explanation, and which parts speak for themselves.
