Surgeon Julio Mayol: “Healing begins with communication”

2023-12-15 11:06:14

Surgeon Julio Mayol is a staunch defender of communication in general and what should exist between the doctor and the patient in particular, because he assures that healing begins with it. Furthermore, he highlights the importance of health professionals disseminating information on the networks to stop hoaxes because if they do not do so, others will occupy that space with the danger that entails.

In an interview with EFEsalud on the occasion of the publication of his book “Health and social networks”, Julio Mayol, head of section of the Surgery Service of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madridtalks about how to be a good health communicator and promote health through communication through social networks, but also about how the pandemic marked a before and after in this sense.

He too professor of surgery at the Complutense University of Madrid and academic at the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain points out that communication is not something that we like or don’t like, but rather it is a necessity and human beings are the most sophisticated animals when it comes to doing it.

Healthcare-patient communication

“I have a motto related to Medicine, but not only to Medicine, that healing begins with communication. Communication is the fundamental thing in the process we call life and particularly in our species, which is the one that has best managed to communicate for good and bad,” says the specialist from the Clinical Hospital.

In the healthcare field, the first thing to understand, he points out, is that what professionals do is establish a communication with another person who is sick and needs help. In this relationship, if the healthcare provider does not communicate well or transmit the information well, he or she will be “failing” in the relationship with the patient.

“When you begin to communicate well with your patients, with their families, you begin to realize that you have the ability to improve the lives of not only one person, but many by transmitting quality information and that is when you expand and become a health disseminator and you can improve the lives of many people by transmitting quality information,” he assures.

Networks enhance the ability to transmit

Once you master communication with the patient, something that, in your opinion, is not done as well as it should be, you can make the leap to networks. So far, it is a minority, he adds.

“Networks greatly enhance the ability to transmit and receive by a very large audience and I also believe that with evolution it is essential that it be part of the life of healthcare personnel,” he maintains.

Mayol in the deanship of the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense. PHOTO EFEsalud/bpc

In fact, in his opinion, it should be included in the training of professionals.

And it is his opinion that a lot can be achieved individually, but even more so through organizations that include healthcare professionals, such as professional associations, medical and scientific societies or hospitals, among others.

“Professionally, we should demand that our organizations have a clear policy for the dissemination of truthful and relevant communication for citizens, that when patients go to search for quality information on social networks, they go, for example, to the College of Nursing or the College of Physicians, and not to an ‘influencer’ in Miami telling anything,” says Mayol, who points out that for this you have to create attractive content.

Therefore, it emphasizes that if health professionals are not present in networks others will take your space.

“When we complain that there is a lot of information, which is not very truthful, professionals and professional organizations have a responsibility, because if they are not there, someone fills the void,” he adds.

And the book that Julio Mayol has just published highlights the importance of communication, of how to disseminate on networks and how to find that information, which is why it is aimed at professionals but also at patients, so that they know where and how to look for truthful information about health and avoid hoaxes.

Cover of the book by Julio Mayol.

Information and misinformation in the pandemic

Precisely during the pandemic, Mayol explains, it was noted how easy it was for anyone to launch messages on social networks, particularly Twitter (now X), that were not true but resonated with the population.

In this sense, he believes that the bigger the lie and the more scandalous the message, the more attention it attracts: “Fear is much more attractive as a hoax than saying ‘calm down, let’s analyze, nothing’s happening.’”

“Our brains have been trained since we were very primitive animals to respond well to alarm signals and alarm signals consist of making us afraid,” adds the expert.

Fear, according to Julio Mayol

For Mayol, creating fear is a way to unite groups and manipulate them, and that is what is done to subsequently create fantasies and generate envy.

“Look at what they do in one place, look at what they do in another, in this one they take energy, in the other they take chloroquine and since you are so afraid and paralyzed, and they bombard you with information, you are practically ‘infoxicated’ and you respond in a irrational way to messages that try to confuse you,” he emphasizes.

Therefore, although the surgeon believes that the pandemic has been a “magnificent example” of good quality in the communication of rigorous information, he also points out that it has shown the capacity for manipulation that a person or a group has when they are connected to large communities. of masses.

The book “Health and social networks” by Mayol is the third title to be published in the Health Tech series, the first collection in the Spanish language specialized in technological innovation in health, medicine and medical care, promoted by LID Editorial and supported by Atrys Health and Sanitas.