I am a heart patient and have been very active on a support message board for my type of disease.  I have been very vocal as a patient advocate, because I was so screwed over by the military, and I have attracted others coming to the board looking for patient experiences.  I have helped out five groups of doctors so far and just finished up a project this morning for another doctor working for their Ph.D.  I like the work, and it often reveals more about my experiences than I give out.  I always make the point that doctors that see patients need to view them as a system of systems and mental health are a huge driver.  I was depressed, anxious for about 18 months before my body started to fail.  Then when it did nearly every single system failed at the same time.  I broke my heart, sleep, migraines, skin, shoulders, body tremors, and my digestion.  I received far more medical care than I needed.  What I needed was a good therapist.   I added it up, in the twelve months after my heart started to fail, I had over 50 medical appts with was issued nearly 100 different drugs.  No one looked at me as a system but only looked at their small piece and ignored the rest. 

I asked for an internist to follow my case because I knew what they were doing was not working.  The internist turned me into my work (yes, she called my bosses boss), my shrink and TDoc.  She told me to report directly to my PDoc.  I arrived in mania to the doctor, and I think I got a bit out of control.  The internist clinic refused to see me after that.  I was nearly begging for someone to look at me as well me, and not a collection of parts to be repaired.  Each doctor had their program, and it didn't matter that overall, the patient got worse.