Get Inside Your Doctor's Head

Ten Commonsense Rules for Making Better Decisions about Medical Care

Phillip K. Peterson

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781421410708
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Internal Medicine & Diagnosis

Ten rules of medical decision making—and when to break them.

Second Place Winner of the Design and Effectiveness Award of the Washington Publishers

With so many medical tests and treatments and so much scientific and medical information—some of it contradictory—how can people make the best medical decisions?

Most medical decisions, it turns out, are based on common sense. In this short and easy-to-read book, Dr. Phillip K. Peterson explains the ten rules of internal medicine. Using real case examples he shows how following the rules will help consumers make good decisions about their medical care.

Get Inside Your Doctor's Head provides advice about such questions as when to seek treatment, when to get another opinion, and when to let time take its course. Turn to the Ten Rules when you are weighing your doctor's recommendations about diagnostic tests and treatments and use them to communicate more effectively with your doctor. As with all rules, the Ten Rules of Internal Medicine have occasional exceptions—and when evidence suggests that you are an exception, the relevant rule should be broken. Follow the Ten Rules to make decisions in the increasingly complicated medical world when you need guidance about health matters for yourself and your loved ones.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION Applying and Breaking the Rules
• RULE 1 If You Don’t Know What You’re Doing, Don’t Do Anything
• RULE 2 If What You’re Doing Seems to Be Working, Think about Continuing It
• RULE 3 If What You’re Doing Doesn’t Seem to Be Working, Think about Doing Something Else
• RULE 4 Don’t Agree to an Invasive Procedure without Understanding Why It’s Needed—and without Getting a Second Opinion
• RULE 5 If You Don’t Have Symptoms, a Doctor Can’t Make You Feel Better
• RULE 6 Never Trust Anyone Completely, Especially Purveyors of Conventional Wisdom
• RULE 7 Most Things Are What They Seem to Be, Except When They’re Not
• RULE 8 What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You
• RULE 9 Timing Is Everything, and Sometimes Time Is the Cure
• RULE 10 Caring Is Always Important Medicine
• EPILOGUE The Participatory Art of Medicine
• RECAP The Rules Revisited
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix. Additional Information about the Common Illnesses Discussed in This Book