How Doctors Think

Jerome Groopman

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780547053646
• eBook ISBN: 9780547348636
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Clinical Medicine

"Must reading for every physician who cares for patients and every patient who wishes to get the best care." —Time magazine

From Dr. Jerome Groopman, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and one of the world’s leading researchers in cancer and AIDS, a groundbreaking, profound view of twenty-first-century medical decision-making, giving doctors and patients the vital information they need to make better judgments together.

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 revolutionary book, Dr. Jerome Groopman pinpoints the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make, offering direct, intelligent questions for patient advocacy to help them get back on track. Drawing on extensive interviews with some of the country’s best doctors and Groopman's own experiences as a doctor and as a patient, How Doctors Think reveals an important approach to twenty-first-century medical practice, improving doctor-patient communication and giving doctors and patients a way to make better judgments together.

This revolutionary book reveals the hidden psychology of medicine and gives you the tools to:

• Cognitive Errors in Medicine: Learn to recognize the hidden biases, cognitive traps, and thought processes that can lead to misdiagnosis, drawn from candid interviews with the nation's top physicians.
• A Patient Advocacy Toolkit: Discover the direct, intelligent questions you can ask to improve communication, partner with your doctor, and ensure you get the best care.
• The Psychology of Medical Judgment: Understand why a physician interrupts a patient within eighteen seconds and how those snap judgments, while often correct, can sometimes have catastrophic consequences.
• Firsthand Medical Insights: Go behind the scenes with Dr. Groopman's own experiences as both a doctor and a patient, revealing a clear path for making better, more informed 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...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• Flesh-and-Blood Decision-Making
• Lessons from the Heart
• Spinning Plates
• Gatekeepers
• A New Mother’s Challenge
• The Uncertainty of the Expert
• Surgery and Satisfaction
• The Eye of the Beholder
• Marketing, Money, and Medical Decisions
• In Service of the Soul
• Epilogue: A Patient’s Questions
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH
• Footnotes