My brother gave me the book, "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman, MD. I am enjoying it immensely!! I want to highlight, underline (and I know book titles are supposed to be underlined, but can't make it do it here!), and post and share almost every passage.
Very enlightening. Reading so much online, I already knew the intro was headed to a gluten-intolerance, despite the poor patient's 15 yr. struggle with an anoxeria misdx. After she was 'labeled', it didn't matter how many doctors she saw. The symptoms she presented with went along with that, so they all went along with it. They didn't listen to her, or thought she was lying.
One doctor quoted says, "Once you remove yourself from the patient's story, you no longer are truly a doctor."
It is balanced, too - there is an example of a patient who did lie. The author just wants everything taken into account - is there a reason for this particular patient to lie, etc., or the fact that loved ones were still pushing for more opinions on a 15 yr. dx, when even the patient had grown weary of hearing the same thing over and over and was tired of invasive testing and the expense, too.
I'm really enjoying it so far, and it is also supposed to offer "direct, intelligent questions patients can ask their doctors.
Maybe now I don't have to write my book, tenatively titled, "What Is Your Damn Problem?" LOL.
No, you still have to write the book. I'm buying any book with that title.
Pip
Suzanne, a perfect title. Please, write the book. We could write a book in here from the experiences posted - what is their damn problem? LOLWill you sign my copy, please?LOL. We saw the ped opth today. He has no damn problems. He will be my 'How Doctors SHOULD Think' chapter.
This passage is from a pharma exec regarding drug marketing:
"Patients' satisfaction with the relief they get from arthritis pain with anti-inflammatory agents is very low. When a new arthritis drug is developed, there is a very rapid penetration of the market, because people say, 'What I'm on now isn't doing the a very good job, so I may as well give this new drug a try. Everyone and their sister run down the road to their doctor and say, 'I saw this ad on the TV for Celebrex or Vioxx.' And the doctor, aware that the patient's arthritis was not being meaningfully ameliorated, is ready to prescribe the new drug." "If the ad were for blood pressure medicine, 'today's drugs, not to mention yesterday's drug, control blood pressure quite well for the vast majority of people', so a doctor is less willing to try a new agent, even if the patient requests it."
I think I'm going to buy this for my son in law who is in medical school.I bought it when it first came out. It should be mandtory reading for any patient. I think knowing how doctors arrive at diagnosis is helpful to all of us especially those who may be having trouble getting a diagnosis or effectively communicating with their doctors. I Think it allows us to adjust our approach with the medical community