---
name: mohitagw15856/doctor-visit-prep
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/mohitagw15856-doctor-visit-prep@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: 34444a5425c4
---

# Doctor Visit Prep Skill

The average appointment gives you a handful of minutes and interrupts your opening sentence fast — and most of that budget gets spent reconstructing a timeline you could have brought written down. This skill builds the one-page visit sheet clinicians actually want: symptoms in onset-duration-severity-pattern form, the medication list that's actually current, and the questions ranked so the important ones happen even if time doesn't. It prepares the *communication*; the medicine stays with the doctor.

## What This Skill Produces

- **The symptom brief** — each concern in clinical shape: what, since when, how bad (0–10), what makes it better/worse, what's changed
- **The current-state sheet** — medications with doses (including supplements), allergies, relevant history, other clinicians involved
- **The ranked question list** — top 3 first, because visits end mid-list
- **Advocacy scripts** — the phrases for feeling dismissed, asking about alternatives, and getting findings documented

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **The reason for the visit** — new problem, follow-up, annual, or the-thing-they're-worried-about (often different from the stated reason; ask gently)
- **The symptom story, unstructured** — let them ramble; the skill does the structuring into timeline form
- **Medications and supplements as actually taken** — not as prescribed; the gap is clinically relevant and the sheet records reality with the discrepancy noted for discussion
- **What they're afraid of** — the unasked question ("could this be cancer?") is the visit's real agenda; putting it on paper is how it gets answered instead of orbited

## Framework: The 12-Minute Rules

1. **Timeline beats adjectives:** "sharp right-side pain, started ~3 weeks ago, 6/10 at worst, worse after meals, new this year" is usable; "it hurts a lot lately" restarts the interview. Every symptom gets onset / severity / pattern / modifiers / trajectory.
2. **Lead with the agenda:** "I have three things: X, Y, and the one I'm most worried about is Z" — said in the first thirty seconds — is the single highest-leverage sentence in healthcare. The sheet opens with it, verbatim.
3. **The worry goes on paper:** unspoken fears drive unfocused visits. Naming the feared diagnosis lets the clinician address it directly — including the reassurance, which only lands when the fear was actually said.
4. **The reality medication list:** what's actually taken, including the skipped doses and the turmeric — with the as-prescribed gap flagged for honest discussion, not hidden. Interactions live in the gap between the two lists.
5. **Advocacy is specific, not adversarial:** "What else could this be?", "What would we expect to change if it's X?", "If this isn't better in [time], what's the next step?", and — when dismissed — "I'd like the chart to reflect that I raised this and we decided [outcome]." Documentation requests change conversations while staying collegial.

## Output Format

# Visit Sheet: [appointment, date] — bring printed or on phone

## The Opening (say this first)
"I have [N] things today: [list]. The one I'm most worried about is [Z]."

## Symptoms
| Concern | Since | Severity (0–10) | Pattern / triggers | Changed how |
|---|---|---|---|---|

## Current State
Medications as actually taken: […, with as-prescribed gaps flagged] · Supplements: … · Allergies: … · Other clinicians/recent tests: …

## Questions (in priority order)
1. [the must-answer] 2. … 3. … [rest below the line — asked if time allows]

## If Needed — Advocacy Lines
Dismissed: "[the chart-documentation line]" · Alternatives: "What else could this be?" · Follow-up: "If this isn't better by [when], what's next?"

> This sheet organizes communication with your clinician — it contains no medical advice, and the doctor's guidance supersedes anything in its structure.

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Every symptom has onset, severity, pattern, and trajectory — zero bare adjectives
- [ ] The opening agenda sentence exists and includes the real worry
- [ ] The medication list records reality, with prescription gaps flagged not hidden
- [ ] Questions are ranked, top-3 above the line
- [ ] The sheet fits one page — a sheet the visit can't absorb defeats itself

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not diagnose, suggest diagnoses, or rank likelihoods — structure the story; the medicine is the doctor's
- [ ] Do not bury the scary question in item 7 — the worry leads or the visit orbits it
- [ ] Do not sanitize the medication reality — the skipped doses are clinical data
- [ ] Do not script confrontation — advocacy lines are collegial, specific, and documentable
- [ ] Do not build a three-page dossier — one page is the format clinicians can actually use mid-visit