Interviewing a "Top Doctor" who was also a Top Communicator

Dr. Rachel L. Schreiber graduated from the University of Maryland’s undergraduate and medical school and completed her residency at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2005, she opened the Family HealthCare Allergy and Asthma Specialists in Germantown, Maryland. Since then, Dr. Schreiber has been named “Top Doctor” by the Washingtonian Magazine and one of “America’s Top Physicians” by the Consumers’ Research Council of America. In addition to being an outstanding doctor, she has also co-founded and was president of MommyDocs, an organization dedicated to educating the public about pediatric issues (unfortunately she sold the name last year). Dr. Schreiber has dealt with many media outlets and has even appeared on national television in 2009, when she travelled to Hollywood to co-host “The Doctors”. Due to her work with media via MommyDocs and credentials as a doctor, I thought Dr. Schreiber would be an excellent interviewee.

When I first contacted Dr. Schreiber to set up an interview, she was very curious as to how I found her. To be honest, she seemed slightly creeped out at first, but with some explanation of the project, my being a UMD student and how I found her on the Internet, she sounded more comfortable. Ironically, her initially unease helped to soothe my unease of interviewing someone who has been on national television.

During the interview, Dr. Schreiber was very relaxed, open and cheerful, which made interviewing her much less intimidating and very pleasant. As an allergist, the difficulty of dealing with technical medical jargon does not affect her as much as it would other doctors. The terminology for dealing with allergies is much simpler than the terminology for dealing with, for example, surgery. Dr. Schreiber gave me examples of the simple terminology she uses daily without me having to probe her at all. She asks questions such as “Is your nose running in school?” or “When you’re playing soccer, do you feel like you have trouble breathing?”

In cases where she has to deal with names of specific allergy shots, she writes the name on a slip of paper to give to the patient. In doing so, Dr. Schreiber ensures the patient receives the correct information. Again, she voluntarily gave useful information, adding to her answer that she is also very lucky to have neat, legible handwriting, unlike the typically doctor scrawl.

In addition to dealing with patients, she must also communicate with her receptionist. For the most part, the receptionist takes care of billing for the visit and prescribed medication. The receptionist has attained proper training and experience so that she is familiar with the names of medication as well. Since Dr. Schreiber is very careful about whom she chooses to work with her and has worked with her current staff for many years, she seldom runs into any problems communicating with her staff at all.

Without a doubt, Dr. Schreiber is a very experienced in regards to effectively communicating in the medical field. She was also easy to interview because she automatically clarified her answers with examples, as I mentioned earlier. I felt that I hardly used Ernesto’s tip to “shut up” because Dr. Schreiber would voluntarily give necessary information without me having to probe or “shut up”. On the flip side, she did not ramble or give unnecessary information either. Most likely due to her work with MommyDocs, Dr. Schreiber is an expert communicator; I could not have asked for a better interviewee. Whether I asked direct, open or closed questions, she always gave an appropriate answer. Additionally, I rarely asked mirror questions or probes because they were mainly irrelevant since Dr. Schreiber automatically expanded on her answers. At one point in the interview, I did stop to summarize her answer to transition into another set of questions.

Besides from her initial unease with how I found her, Dr. Schreiber was very comfortable during the interview and did not give off any nonverbal or verbal cues that she was uninterested in the interview. She did not act distracted at all – I don’t recall her checking her watch at any time during the interview. The setting also discouraged distractions; she set up a time so that she would not be in her office susceptible to distractions or interruptions.

It was truly enjoyable to interview Dr. Schreiber. With her exemplary credentials in the medical and communication field, I felt honored that she squeezed time into her schedule to talk with me. After interviewing her, I feel that all her patients are very lucky to have such an understanding, exceptional allergist.