Stanford Clinics Physician Mindset Training

Mindsets play an important role in motivating and shaping health behavior and outcomes. For example, when patients have the mindset that a treatment will work, they are more likely to adhere to treatment medications and the treatment itself becomes more effective as a result of this mindset. Providers have an opportunity to shape important patient mindsets as part of clinical care, and these mindsets may influence patients' adherence to medication, screening and vaccination recommendations, and diet, exercise, and treatment recommendations that can help patients manage chronic illness. To help care teams capitalize on the potential of leveraging mindsets in medicine and improve patient health behavior and outcomes, we developed and implemented the Medicine Plus Mindset Training as part of Primary Care 2.0. Built on more than two decades of research, this training program (a) Informs Primary Care teams about the power of patient mindsets in shaping treatment outcomes (b) Provides care teams with a language and framework to identify which patient mindsets may be at play (i.e. patient mindsets about illness, treatment, their body, and the provider/care team) and (c) Equips care teams with skills and techniques to effectively shape patient mindsets to improve health outcomes. By motivating care teams to recognize patient mindsets that may be hindering health behavior change (such as "this illness is a catastrophe") or medication adherence (such as "this medication is going to cause side effects"), care teams become better equipped to help their patients adopt more useful mindsets (such as "this treatment will work," "this illness is manageable," "my body is capable," and "I am in good hands").