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"How Doctors Think" By Dr. Jerome Groopman (2007)
, 4 Oct 2014
Have you ever wondered why do some doctors make stupid errors and others solve very difficult puzzling medical cases? How does a doctor
decide that you have disease X from the gazillion possible diseases
that your symptoms could be related to?
The
answer is in the way approaches and listens to the patient,and, most
importantly, how he processes all the information and data on each
individual case - how a doctor's brain work is more important than the
knowledge he has. How a doctor thinks is something that profoundly
affects all of us every time we go to the doctor.
The book focus on many aspects related to diagnosing an illness an how doctors' brain works to make an accurate diagnosis, and the many elements that are required for it, when you visit many dozen of patients a day, sometimes more than you can attend to. Groopman also demonstrates what a good doctor thinks, acts and behaves like, and what separates a good doctor from a bad one, giving precise tangible information.
The book mentions a good deal of real medical cases, some of them fascinating, all entertaining and interesting. Groopman has the ability to be scientifically rigorous but conveying his message in a simple, organised and understandable way to the lay reader. The different chapters are devoted to different types of doctors: general practitioners, specialists, surgeons, radiologists (this one is one of my favourite chapters and totally unknown to most of us), paediatricians, the pressure of the pharmaceutical industry on doctors, and the care of the elderly. All of them are fascinating and, in some cases, eye opening. The most important chapter is perhaps the one devoted to us, the patients to be, on how to redirect our relation with your physicians when they haven't been able to solve our ailment after a few visits. The book leaves out, the issue of diagnosis in psychiatry, which would certainly make another fascinating book.
I
loved seeing criticised by a physician medical behaviours that are
widespread amongst the profession, though ethically reprehensible, of
which I am whining about. For example, the fact that some GPs don't look
at your face while you are talking to them, those who don't listen to
what you are saying, those who don't examine you when they should, those
who are interested in getting points with the pharmaceutical industry
or promoting surgeries that aren't necessary, and, most importantly,
those who treat me as a case not as patient with thoughts and feelings.
Indeed, Groopman demonstrates that if some doctors saw and related to
their patients more like a patient and not as a medical case, there
would be less medical errors.
This one of those books that any medical practitioner, any medical student and any person visiting a GP should read and keep fresh in his-her mind. I can guarantee you that you will not be bored with the reading, and that you will never think of doctor, look at him, or relate to him, in the same way ever again.
Posted in
Book Reviews,
How Doctors Think,
Jerome Groopman,
Medicine,
Non-Fiction
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