Autoimmune diseases are a group of diseases that involve multiple systems throughout the body and can involve multiple organs and systems from head to toe and from skin to internal organs at the same time. Many patients often visit other departments before consulting rheumatology, and are referred by doctors from other departments. Therefore, how to correctly express your symptoms and treatment experience in the shortest possible time so that your doctor can have a proper judgment and formulate a treatment plan is something all patients would like to do. In the following, I will introduce to you what all preparations need to be made from the doctor’s point of view. 1, detailed review of their own disease experience The disease experience mentioned here includes the time from the appearance of symptoms to the time of consultation, what symptoms have appeared, what hospitals have been consulted, what tests have been done, what treatment has been carried out, what is the effect, and what side effects have occurred after the use of drugs. Has anyone in your family had the same symptoms? If possible, it is best to write down these experiences on paper. In case you miss some details because of nervousness when facing the doctor. Of course, the doctor will also roughly ask from these aspects, and it is good that you can describe it correctly. 2, proper preservation of medical records As the saying goes, “good memory is better than good penmanship”, which is actually true. In the clinic, I met many patients, although in many hospitals have seen the disease. However, they never keep their own medical records, laboratory tests and imaging examinations. Many test results are often given to us through the patient’s dictation. It’s not that we don’t trust our patients. I often encounter such patients in the clinic, who tell me that the results of such and such tests are fine, but the patient’s symptoms and signs are consistent with a certain disease, and I will say to the patient, “Then bring the results of your previous visits to the clinic next time. It turns out later that the lab results are actually faulty. Medicine is a very specialized discipline, and many clinicians need 5 years of undergraduate education and 5 years of specialized training before they can enter a specialty. The specialization of many tests is also very strong. Non-specialists are sometimes difficult to interpret. It is recommended that patients must keep their consultation records properly to facilitate the doctor’s judgment of the disease and avoid duplication of tests. 3. Trust the doctor The trust in the doctor I am talking about here mainly includes the following aspects: 1. I believe that every doctor wants to give the correct diagnosis and treatment to the patient and eliminate the disease. Doctors are more afraid of misdiagnosis than patients. Therefore, it is important to cooperate with the doctor’s request during the consultation. I used to meet such patients in the outpatient clinic, and I would ask them, “Why are you not feeling well?” The patient would usually hold out both hands and say, “Look at what’s wrong with me,” and then not say a word. Doctors are not fortune-tellers and cannot diagnose a disease by a single clinical manifestation. You need a detailed description of the patient’s medical history and a physical examination in order to have a preliminary impression of the disease. 2, don’t tell the doctor’s medication – some patients think they “understand” the drugs and treatment, and hate to be a doctor themselves, so that the doctor can be an “assistant”.