How Doctors Think

Jerome Groopman

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780547348636
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Education

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.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Acromegaly, 204

Active listening, 18

ADHD, 133, 157

Adriamycin, 49–50, 51–52, 53

Affective error, 47, 65–66

in case of cancer patient, 58

Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, spinal fusion panel convened by, 229–30

Aging

and estrogen, 218–19

medicalizing of, 206, 209–10

and testosterone, 209

AIDS, and Shira Stein, 109, 115

Alcoholic(s)

Charles Carver seen as, 44–46

with ischemic bowel, 183–84

as numerous in inner city, 65

Algorithms, and diagnosis, 5, 6

overreliance on, 238, 239

risks in, 88

See also Bayesian analysis

Alter, Harrison, 59–66, 67, 68, 72–75, 78, 86

Alzheimer’s disease, and COX-2 inhibitors, 213

American College of Physicians, and Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 230

American Hospital Association, and Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 230

American Journal of Cardiology, shunt criterion published in, 140

American Medical Association, and Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 230

Anchoring, 65, 75

Andropause, 208, 209, 211

Anemia

and ankle pain case, 67

and babesiosis case, 251

in case of Anne Dodge, 13

in case of George Franklin, 241

in case of Vincent Rivera, 248, 249

from lack of vitamin B₁₂, 128

Angina, 30

and case of Gloria Manning, 91

and case of Evan McKinley, 43, 44, 68

and case of William Morgan, 30

illusory procedure for, 223–24

and possibility of missed diagnosis, 263

Annals of Internal Medicine, 215

Anorexia nervosa, and case of Anne Dodge, 2, 12, 22

Antithymocyte globulin (ATG), 248

Anxiety, productive, 37

Aortic aneurysm, misdiagnosis of, 75–76

Aortic dissection, missed diagnosis of, 25

Aortic stenosis, 147

Apoplexy, pituitary, 205

Arthritis

and author’s hand, 160, 173

in case of Glor...