How Doctors Think - Hardcover

Jerome Groopman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618610030 ISBN 13: 9780618610037

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007

Synopsis

On average, a physician will interrupt a patient describing her symptoms within eighteen seconds. In that short time, many doctors decide on the likely diagnosis and best treatment. Often, decisions made this way are correct, but at crucial moments they can also be wrong -- with catastrophic consequences. In this myth-shattering book, Jerome Groopman pinpoints the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. Groopman explores why doctors err and shows when and how they can -- with our help -- avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health. This book is the first to describe in detail the warning signs of erroneous medical thinking and reveal how new technologies may actually hinder accurate diagnoses. How Doctors Think offers direct, intelligent questions patients can ask their doctors to help them get back on track.

Groopman draws on a wealth of research, extensive interviews with some of the country’s best doctors, and his own experiences as a doctor and as a patient. He has learned many of the lessons in this book the hard way, from his own mistakes and from errors his doctors made in treating his own debilitating medical problems.

How Doctors Think reveals a profound new view of twenty-first-century medical practice, giving doctors and patients the vital information they need to make better judgments together.

About this title

About the Author

Jerome Groopman, M.D., holds the Dina and Raphael Recanti Chair of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

From AudioFile

Yes, we hear about how doctors think, but Dr. Groopman's lessons encourage everyone to examine how they reason and come to conclusions. Using engaging patient histories and simple language to explain complicated medical concepts, the author makes his instruction in cognition pleasant to hear and easy to understand. Michael Prichard adapts his narration to make himself sound interesting and interested. His reading rhythm and pace find just the right combination to make every word audible and understandable. Although he fluffs the pronunciations of a few medical terms, no one but a physician will notice. The fact that Prichard doesn't sound scientific may increase the audiobook's appeal to general readers who want to improve their ability to think logically when making decisions. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0618610030
• ISBN 13: 9780618610037
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 307