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 enlarge | Author: Jerome Groopman
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $6.75
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Avg. Customer Rating:  154 reviews
Sales Rank: 1277
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0547053649
Dewey Decimal Number: 610
EAN: 9780547053646
ASIN: 0547053649
Publication Date: March 12, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very thoughtful June 5, 2008
This is a very thoughtful book. It really makes you think. It gives us a clue about universal health care.
Nobody's perfect May 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What this book does through the powerful tool of story-telling is both inform and empower us to become active participants in our own health care. I have a chronic illness that was repeatedly misdiagnosed (and thus inappropriated treated) for years.
As I read this book, I began to understand how that process came about. I also began to see the individual physicians involved as more fully human, and to be able to forgive them for the errors they made, even those made out of arrogance. Frustrated, I was lucky (and stubborn) enough to keep questioning and searching until somebody could answer my questions, evaluate my condition with and open mind, and provide an accurate diagnosis.
Since then, appropriate treatment has allowed me to "recover" my life from living as an invalid, and again become an active partipant in my own life. But my illness was not inevitably chronic: as a result of the delay in diagnosis, I will always live with its aftermath, and always be vulnerable to relapses. I wish I'd had a book like this to guide me through the process of questioning and discovery: it might have taken less than the 16 years it did.
The mysterious reviewer who hides behind the name "The Doctor" (an arrogant stance in itself) takes exception to this book for the way it is written and for the fact that it uses anecdotes. This book is not a scientific treatise: it could not do its job if it were written as one. As a scientist myself, I know that while anecdote cannot stand as proof, it can stand in as illustration and example. Anecdote is one of the many ways humans transmit experience and wisdom, and make it meaningful at a personal level. It is entirely appropriate in Dr. Groopman's book.
 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 2 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.
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