Dr. Jerome Groopman teaches at the Harvard Medical School and writes frequently for the New Yorker magazine. In How Doctors Think, he offers valuable advice to both physicians and their patients about the ways in which doctors analyze and diagnose.
Using specific cases as examples, Dr. Groopman interviews doctors and patients involved in situations where initial analysis of the symptoms and history presented resulted in errors in diagnosis.
He analyzes how and why this happened--he considers the training the doctors had, previous diagnoses and history presented to them, as well as the pressures on them from insurance carriers, drug companies and patients alike to come to certain conclusions.
The author suffers from chronic medical problems of his own, so he is quite sympathetic with the frustration of patients who feel that they are not being heard. For someone like me, with no medical training, the book offers guidance about working with physicians and insight into how they think which is quite valuable.
When I finished the book, it occured to me that some of what Groopman describes in the medical profession is found in every profession--and the church. He points out that often doctors accept a diagnosis because it was made by others and ignores the facts of the case that don't jibe with it. This is classic "inside the box" behavior, and the remedies he suggests --such as assessing the situation from the ground up without reference to previous analysis and using more global thinking to approach a solution--can be applied anywhere.
A number of the cases he describes involve people who suffered for years (and nearly died in a couple of cases) because of medical treatment that was not appropriate. The patients kept returning to their doctors with deteriorating conditions and the doctors continued the same wrong course of action. Isn't that similar to the ways in which the church continues to keep doing things in the same way with poor results but refuses to change its course of action? You can say the same thing about each of us in our individual lives as well. As Doctor Phil would say, "And how's that working for ya?"
I think we all must be proactive about our health care, and this book certainly offers a lot of insight and guidance for patients. I would think it is a valuable resource for physicians and other health care professionals as well.
Using specific cases as examples, Dr. Groopman interviews doctors and patients involved in situations where initial analysis of the symptoms and history presented resulted in errors in diagnosis.
He analyzes how and why this happened--he considers the training the doctors had, previous diagnoses and history presented to them, as well as the pressures on them from insurance carriers, drug companies and patients alike to come to certain conclusions.
The author suffers from chronic medical problems of his own, so he is quite sympathetic with the frustration of patients who feel that they are not being heard. For someone like me, with no medical training, the book offers guidance about working with physicians and insight into how they think which is quite valuable.
When I finished the book, it occured to me that some of what Groopman describes in the medical profession is found in every profession--and the church. He points out that often doctors accept a diagnosis because it was made by others and ignores the facts of the case that don't jibe with it. This is classic "inside the box" behavior, and the remedies he suggests --such as assessing the situation from the ground up without reference to previous analysis and using more global thinking to approach a solution--can be applied anywhere.
A number of the cases he describes involve people who suffered for years (and nearly died in a couple of cases) because of medical treatment that was not appropriate. The patients kept returning to their doctors with deteriorating conditions and the doctors continued the same wrong course of action. Isn't that similar to the ways in which the church continues to keep doing things in the same way with poor results but refuses to change its course of action? You can say the same thing about each of us in our individual lives as well. As Doctor Phil would say, "And how's that working for ya?"
I think we all must be proactive about our health care, and this book certainly offers a lot of insight and guidance for patients. I would think it is a valuable resource for physicians and other health care professionals as well.
5 comments:
Very cool connections you've made here.
I like Groopman's stuff I've read. Thanks for the review!
You are soooo right about being proactive about our health care. I used to work with a hospital management company and have friends that work in the "business", and it has become more de-personalized every year, for an extremely personal practice.
Trying to teach my mom this. At 81, she still says "Oh, just fine" when the doctor asks her "How are you feeling." ~grrr of frustration~
Thanks for the book review. I'm gonna buy it for my mom.
Isn’t the classical definition of stupidity doing the same thing and expecting a different result? It applies to all professions and in most situations. We refuse to question what we are told. So, if a salient fact was missed in the first analysis it is rarely ever recovered. As we Presbyterians go slowly extinct maybe we should return to first principles and question again the appropriate application of the Great Commission in the 21 st century.
It's so good to hear about Dr. Groopman, and I realized why the name connected. A dear elderly woman in constant pain in our book study "The Wisdom Class" highly recommends his "The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness". She gives copies to people, and now I do, too. So here's another book to read!
I liked this book - he addresses a real problem, as anyone who has dealt with health issues themselves of in their family can readily attest. I appreciated the 'advice' for patients. It was also refreshing to find a doctor who placed part of the blame where it belongs.
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