FP Report -- 1999 Post-Assembly Edition
Good communication is sign of good medicine for FP of the Year
Family Physician of the Year Harry Depew, M.D., of San Diego uses American Sign Language during his speech to the AAFP Congress of Delegates on Sept. 14.The Academy's 2000 Family Physician of the Year opened his speech to the Congress of Delegates Sept. 14 in Orlando, Fla., with a few comments in sign language. "If you were a hearing person in a deaf world, where you could not understand sign language, how would you feel communicating with your doctor?" he asked out loud.
Harry Depew, M.D., of San Diego grew up in Los Angeles with deaf parents and two deaf sisters, so the family communicated using American Sign Language. He's among just a few San Diego physicians who can care for members of the deaf community without using a translator.
"I hardly think of them as deaf patients," he said. "I just talk to them like I would with hearing patients. By signing, we can communicate much better than with written messages. When people talk, we talk with inflection. Well, they put inflection into sign."
Deaf patients often seek out his practice because they know Depew can sign. But occasionally, new patients will show up for an appointment unaware. When the doctor greets them in sign language, "a great big smile breaks out across their faces," Depew said. "Being able to sign improves communication, and any time you improve communication in the exam room, you will help them get better health care."
Depew represents the California AFP on the state's Advisory Group for Newborn Hearing Screening Program. "Recent research shows infants with hearing loss who have appropriate diagnosis, treatment and early intervention services initiated before they are 6 months old are likely to develop normal language and communication skills," he said.
One hearing-impaired patient, Walter Cook, wrote a poignant letter recommending Depew for the Family Physician of the Year award. Although husbands often weren't allowed in the delivery room in the mid-'70s, Depew invited Cook to attend the birth of his son, Brian. Everyone in the room was wearing a surgical mask, which precluded lip reading, but Cook and his deaf wife, Brenda, were able to understand what was happening every step of the way. "The fact that Dr. Depew was very fluent in American Sign Language made my day because I was able to follow Dr. Depew's description of what he was doing to deliver our baby," Cook wrote. "I have never forgotten seeing our son being born and I never will, thanks to Dr. Depew."
Depew, who turns 80 this month, credited his family for supporting his career and volunteer activities over the years. "I couldn't do it without a wonderful wife," he said of Sara, a "south'na" from Alabama.
Sara Depew and their two daughters attended the Assembly to help celebrate with the Family Physician of the Year.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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