How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
List Price:
Our Price: $8.65
You Save: $17.35 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.28 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jerome GroopmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-19
ISBN: 0618610030
Number of pages: 307
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Book Reviews of How Doctors Think
Book Review: "As many as 15 percent of all diagnoses are inaccurate...a distressingly high rate of misdiagnosis."
Summary: 5 Stars
This alarming statistic introduces Dr. Jerome Groopman's compelling analysis of how doctors think--and what this means for patients seeking diagnoses. Groopman is curious to discover how one doctor misses a diagnosis which another doctor gets. Interviewing specialists in different fields, he analyzes the ways they approach patients, how they gather information, how much they may credit or discredit the previous medical histories and diagnoses of these patients, how they deal with symptoms which may not fit a particular diagnosis, and how they arrive at a final diagnosis.
Throughout, he considers the doctors' time constraints, the pressures on them to see a certain number of patients each day, the limitations on tests which are imposed by insurance companies or by hospitals themselves, and the many options for treating a single disease. He is sympathetic, both toward the patient and the physician, and, because he himself has had medical problems, he provides insights from his own experience to show how physicians (and patients) think.
Case histories abound, beginning with the 82-pound woman, whose celiac disease was not diagnosed for fifteen years. Here Groopman analyzes the uses and misuses of clinical decision trees and algorithms used by many doctors and hospitals to assess probabilities and make decision-making more efficient. Sometimes, however, it is necessary for a doctor to depart from the algorithm and obey intuition. Recognizing when the physician is "winging it"--depending too much on intuition and too little on evidence--is a challenge for both patients and other physicians. Ultimately, Groopman focuses on language as the key to diagnosis, showing that when patients and physicians can communicate and truly share information, they have a better chance to come to correct diagnoses and appropriate treatments.
The success of Groopman's book attests to the need for discussion of these issues, but I am not sure Groopman realizes the difficulty patients have in finding ideal doctors whose personalities, thinking, and communication styles are compatible with their own. Most of us are referred to specialists by our primary care physicians (some of whom we see only once a year and do not know well), and it is not possible to interview several specialists to find the one most compatible. We accept the appointment our primary care physician has set up for us, often with the specialist who has the earliest available appointment. Patients with urgent problems may have fewer choices than Groopman seems to think they have. Though we all search for the ideal, ultimately we must hope that our own diagnoses are not among the "problem fifteen percent." (4.5 stars) n Mary Whipple
Health, Mind & Body Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Health, Mind & Body Books
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental Viewby Stanley Milgram
Harpercollins; Published: 1974-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $532.97
Emily's Reasons Why Not: A Novelby Carrie Gerlach
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Truth & Beautyby Ann Patchett
HarperAudio; Published: 2004-05-11; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $3.22
Price in other shops:
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Womanby Ian Kerner
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2009-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.67
Price in other shops:
My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderersby Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg
William Morrow; Published: 2004-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
Nutrition: Science and Applicationsby Lori A. Smolin
Harcourt College Pub; Published: 1996-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.50
Price in other shops:
Complete Idiot's Guide to Throwing a Great Partyby Patty Sachs, Phyllis Cambria
Alpha; Published: 2000-10-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.10
Price in other shops:
Complete Idiot's Guide to Walking for Healthby Erika Peters
Alpha; Published: 2001-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $47.29
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stressby Jeffrey P.; Davidson, Jeff Davidson
Macmillan Distribution; Published: 1996; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.33
Diving-Bell and the Butterflyby Jean-Dominique Bauby
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2002-05-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.26
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Medical Interview: Mastering Skills for Clinical Practice (Medical Interview)by John L. Coulehan, Marian R. Block
F.A. Davis Company; Published: 2005-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.30
Price in other shops:
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosisby Lisa Sanders
Broadway; Published: 2010-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops:
The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illnessby Jerome Groopman
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2005-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.47
Price in other shops:
Histology: A Text and Atlas (Histology (Ross))by Michael H. Ross, Wojciech Pawlina
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Published: 2010-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $55.00
Price in other shops:
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performanceby Atul Gawande
Baker and Taylor; Picador; Published: 2008-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Greenman's Principles of Manual Medicine (Point (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins))by Lisa DeStefano
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Published: 2010-03-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $75.34
Price in other shops:
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Rightby Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2009-12-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performanceby Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2007-04-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.90
Price in other shops:
Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for Youby Jerome Groopman MD, Pamela Hartzband MD
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2011-09-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.98
Price in other shops:
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2002-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops: