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| Author: Jerome Groopman
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $40.24
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Avg. Customer Rating:  152 reviews
Sales Rank: 1514777
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 6.5 x 1
ISBN: 1400134250
Dewey Decimal Number: 610
EAN: 9781400134250
ASIN: 1400134250
Publication Date: April 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Insightful look into your doctor's professional life May 30, 2008
"How Doctors Think" is a series of anecdotes by various doctors, interviewed by the authour, with the underlying theme of when/why/how doctors can make mistakes.
In the sense that it gave me insight into what really goes on behind the appearance of infallible expert, the book was fascinating. The authour talks about why doctors sometimes give you a multitude of answers, misdiagnose, rush, or don't seem to care, by giving you the doctors' perspective on the situation.
There are two aspects I didn't care for, both closely related. Mind you, I got the book for insight into the doctor's life and nothing more.
The first is the advice to the patients, where the authour tries to advise patients on what they can do to "help" the doctor avoid misdiagnosis. Encouraging patients to question the doctor or try to coach lateral thinking won't be effective for all doctor-patient relationships or situations. I happen to like asking doctors questions, for my own edification, but I don't know if that would work for everyone.
The second is the apparent theme to doctors, to be aware of potential for cognitive errors, and examples of how other doctors handle themselves to reduce the chances of those cognitive errors. Mildly intersting, but too much time spent on it considering I'm not a doctor and I imagine most readers wouldn't be either?
Overall, though, I learned a lot about life in a doctor's coat, and that makes it a great book for me.
Good book on suviving in present health care system May 22, 2008
Author brings his vast experience as a physician and looks into odds of suviving in present day health care system. Good read for everyone who wants to understand the issues in Physician-Patient relationship.
Not for the average patient May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The seed for the idea of this book was planted several years ago while Dr. Groopman was in the course of supervising interns, residents, and medical students on rounds in a teaching hospital. While conducting the rounds in a customary manner, Dr Groopman became disillusioned by the responses of his charges. While these were unquestionably intelligent and educated students of medicine, he observed a failure in their ability to question, listen, and observe. At that point, as their instructor, he began to question how doctors are trained to think about their patients and the patients' problems.
This book delves into the traditional methods that doctors have used to make decisions, as well as many of the problems that currently face the health care industry and the ways in which they interfere with the doctor and patient relationship. In today's world, the doctor must not only do the best possible job for his patient , but also comply with insurance companies, lawyers, algorithms, and flowcharts. Historically, doctors have learned as "apprentices" to other doctors by observing, doing, and teaching. But, even with the advances of modern medicine, doctors are still required to make many judgment calls. Medicine is never an exact science.
Another area that is explored is Doctor/patient communication. Inability to engage the patient in meaningful dialogue is one of the problems encountered. Another problem in "doctor thinking" is falling back on stereotypical thinking and not approaching the patient's problems as a unique circumstance.
The book also details the pitfalls that doctors can enter into by not evaluating their diagnostic processes. Fatigue, fear of failure, and interpreting data inappropriately are but a few. A physician by nature refers to his own area of expertise when evaluating a problem. For instance, if a patient visit's a surgeon, the surgeon looks at the patient as a surgical candidate. This is a generalization, but in a nutshell, a doctor wants to use skills with which he is most familiar. Dr. Groopman also calls attention to the influence of the doctor's decision on the "last bad experience". A fear of repeating an error sometimes clouds the judgment of the practitioner.
As a practicing health care provider, I found this book to be pleasantly readable and very informative. The book is not, however, written at a level that an average patient would be able to understand. The vocabulary is at a college level, and the writer assumes at least a basic understanding of medical terminology and anatomy. In one case, I was baffled by a reference to Sisyphus. Which mythological character was this and what was his dilemma? (The text referred to a physician that felt like Sisyphus when he encountered patients that did not care for themselves. Sisyphus was in fact the being that tried to roll the boulder up a giant hill.)
While How Doctors Think is a worthwhile read that provides great insight to how doctors are trained and the many challenges they face, I am skeptical that this book will improve communication and outcomes for the average patient.
 Great shape, great service! May 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book I ordered came promptly, was packaged well, and was in pristine condition. I was very pleased.
How Doctors Think May 8, 2008
I had checked out a copy from the library. A friend who had recently had to deal with her parent's illnesses started reading it and couldn't stop. So I bought a copy for her. It is worth having on hand as it has many ideas about dealing with doctors and knowing when to support, question, review or seek other ideas. Some of their thinking reflects the training of medical school and it is helpful to know why certain patterns of thinking are so prevalent.
I also appreciated the chapters on reading xrays, tests, etc. and how much that can vary from expert to expert or time to time. It makes me realize that if I don't put effort into my doctor's analysis, I may well get an inaccurate one.
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