I’m not a doctor (nor a nurse or any other kind of medical professional for that matter), and until I started communicating with doctors regularly in my profession, I didn’t fully understand their role in the patient-doctor relationship – and thus, I didn’t fully understand my role and responsibilities in the patient-doctor relationship.

The more I learn from doctors, the more I come to believe in the old adage, “you can only be helped as much as you are willing to help yourself.”...