How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
List Price:
Our Price: $2.39
You Save: $13.56 (85%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jerome GroopmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-12
ISBN: 0547053649
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of How Doctors Think
Book Review: everyone who goes to the doctor should read this book
Summary: 5 Stars
Four years ago I went to my doctor in Massachusetts with a high fever and an earache. She diagnosed an ear infection and gave me antibiotics. Ten days later, I was in the hospital - in a room where they could turn on the negative air pressure at a moment's notice - with malaria. If I read Groopman's book before having that experience, I might have gotten the treatment I needed at a much earlier, safer stage.
Groopman's book is all about why doctors get it wrong sometimes and what we can do - as patients and their loved ones - to help them get it right. Ultimately, doctors - like everyone else - are subject to a number of cognitive biases, such as availability (where they think you have whatever they've seen a lot of recently) or search success (where, as soon as they find a problem, they stop looking even though it could be something else). Groopman outlines these biases and illustrates each with multiple actual cases.* He then gives the reader practical advice about how to help doctors avoid these biases. For example
Patients can help the doctor think by asking questions. If he mentions a possible complication from surgery, they can ask how often it happens. If he talks about pain and lingering discomfort from a procedure, they can ask how the pain compares with having a tooth pulled under Novocain, or some other unpleasant event. If he recommends a procedure, patients can ask why, what might be found, with what probability, and, importantly, how much difference it will make to find it. (p175)
Here are a few of the other questions he recommends in the course of the book:
* What is the worst diagnosis that could explain these symptoms?
* What organs are near where I'm feeling discomfort?
* Is it possible that I have more than one problem?
* What else could it be?
* Is there anything that doesn't fit?
* Is this treatment standard or do different specialists recommend different approaches? Why?
* How time tested is this treatment?
The book describes a litany of medical cases, each interestingly (like a good tv show - see below). Groopman also describes lots of research on medical decision making. I found it 96% interesting. But if you don't find those elements interesting, the book may feel a little bit long.** In that case, I highly recommend reading at least the epilogue, which concentrates some - but not all - of what patients and families can ask to help doctors do a good job. I don't agree with Groopman on everything; I have a little less faith than he does in doctors' judgment and a little more in evidence-based medicine,*** where it can be appropriately applied. But those aren't the things that matter in this book.
Take-away: Give the book a try; if it starts feeling long to you, at least carefully read the epilogue.
* The first third of the book basically felt like watching a season of House M.D., a show in which a brilliant doctor is surrounded by a smart team, each member of which brings her or his biases to the case of the episode, leading to incorrect diagnoses, until the brilliant Dr House saves the day. Each of the biases and many of the diseases have come up on the show.
** If you do find reading this stuff interesting, one of my favorite books by a doctor is Arun Gawande's recent Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.
*** Super Crunchers makes a strong case for evidence based medicine, written for the layperson.
Summary of How Doctors Think
How Doctors Think is a window into the mind of the physician and an insightful examination of the all-important relationship between doctors and their patients. In this myth-shattering work, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpints why doctors succeed and why they err. Most important, Groopman shows when and how doctors can -- with our help -- avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in General Books
Frontrunners 2007-2008 INTERNAL MEDICINE Q&A REVIEW: Syllabus Companion for Board Reviewby Bradley D. Mittman
Frontrunners Publishing; Published: 2007-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $134.10
Price in other shops:
Explaining 'Unexplained Illnesses': Disease Paradigm for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Fibromyalgia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Gulf War Syndromeby Martin L. Pall
Informa HealthCare; Published: 2007-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $71.96
Price in other shops:
First, Do No Harmby Lisa Belkin
Fawcett; Published: 1994-03-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practiceby Susan Standring
Churchill Livingstone; Published: 2004-11-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $190.00
Color Atlas of Physiology (Color Atlas of Physiology ( Despopoulos))by Agamemnon Despopoulos, Stefan Silbernagl, Suzyon O'Neal Wandrey
Georg Thieme Verlag; Published: 2003-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.00
Price in other shops:
EMS Field Guide: ALS Versionby Paul Lesage, Paula Derr, Jon Tardiff
Informed; Published: 2008-06-17; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $16.36
Price in other shops:
General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal System - Latin Nomenclature (THIEME Atlas of Anatomy)by Michael Schuenke M.D. Ph.D., Erik Schulte M.D., Udo Schumacher
Thieme Medical Publishers; Published: 2006-01-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $95.96
Price in other shops:
Little Sugar Addicts: End the Mood Swings, Meltdowns, Tantrums, and Low Self-Esteem in Your Child Todayby Kathleen DesMaisons
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2004-07-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.27
Price in other shops:
FRONTRUNNERS INTERNAL MEDICINE BOARD REVIEW SYLLABUS 2007! Core Review for the ABIM Certification & Recertification Examsby Bradley D. Mittman
FRONTRUNNERS PUBLISHING; Published: 2007-01-01; Textbook Binding; Book
Best price: $595.23
NAIL THE BOARDS 2005-2006! The Ultimate Internal Medicine Review for USMLE Steps 2 & 3by Bradley D. Mittman
Frontrunners Publishing; Published: 2005-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $75.36
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
First, Do No Harmby Lisa Belkin
Fawcett; Published: 1994-03-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorerby Shannon Brownlee
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.89
Price in other shops:
Intern: A Doctor's Initiationby Sandeep Jauhar
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2009-01-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops:
How Doctors Think: Clinical Judgment and the Practice of Medicineby Kathryn Montgomery
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $31.87
Price in other shops:
Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality (Vintage)by Pauline W. Chen
Vintage; Published: 2008-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
On Call: A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residencyby Emily R. Transue M.D.
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops:
The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospitalby Samuel Shem
Dell; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.55
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: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande
Picador; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.47
Price in other shops:
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performanceby Atul Gawande
Picador; Published: 2008-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.39
Price in other shops: