The Essential Patient Handbook: Getting the Health Care You Need--From Doctors You Know

• getting your doctor to listen
• preparing information your doctor needs to know
• understanding the reasoning behind your doctor's questions
• asking the essential questions about tests, diagnoses, medications, surgery, and second opinions
• checking for medication side effects and drug interactions
• dealing with confusing insurance and billing forms
• working with your doctor when considering alternative and complementary medicines
• handling difficult doctor-patient interactions
• dealing with a hospital stay

The Essential Patient Handbook will walk readers through the entire medical evaluation process, from the first question to the last. It gives them a guide to thoroughly prepare medical information BEFORE seeing a doctor, and explains why each piece of information is crucial. The information prepared with the aid of this book are symptom-specific, and will help physicians to arrive at a differential diagnosis. Once a diagnosis is established, it will help readers prepare further information that your doctors needs to learn to remain on top of your medical condition."

Alan B. Ettinger, MD, is Chief of the Division of Epilepsy and Electroencephalography, Department of Neurology, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, and director of the Huntington Hospital Seizure Monitoring Program in Huntington, New York. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, President of the Long Island Epilepsy Foundation Professional Advisory Board, and has published widely in medical journals and textbooks on the topic of epilepsy.

Deborah M. Weisbrot, MD, is Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic and is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University Medical Center at Stony Brook, NY.