How To Think Like A Doctor

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.

The author, a practicing physician and medical educator, has taught medical students for 35 years. He focuses on the need for medical providers to understand the way their patients view what is wrong with them, why it happened, and what should be done. Medicine should be about not just on curing disease but on making patients feel better.

Students graduate from medical school with a knowledge of body systems, disease processes, and care algorithms. They've learned to treat but not necessarily how to connect with patients as people. It's these difficult-to-learn connection skills that trip doctors up and that patients need doctors to have to ensure the best outcomes. Listen, Think, & Speak Like a Doctor is a witty, relatable, and honest book full of sage advice regarding the real-life challenges and practice demands of becoming and being a physician. Dr. Thakur shares actionable wisdom through relatable, engaging metaphors and anecdotes about the thinking and listening skills required to make beneficial decisions for everything from choosing a career path to diagnosing difficult cases once in practice. He also shares stories about how a skillful physician interacts with, and speaks to, patients. Dr. Thakur's insights make an excellent primer for physicians-in-training and new physicians; they'll also resonate with experienced doctors, re-energizing their patient interactions and their commitment to their chosen healing profession.

This insightful and candid guide unveils the truth about medical school, residency, and the fascinating realities that await aspiring physicians beyond the classroom. On Becoming a Doctor provides an essential roadmap for your medical odyssey including: Comprehensive Guidance: Delve into the intricacies of medical school life and residency, as well as the challenges and rewards of being a doctor. Gain invaluable insights into the various medical specialties, allowing you to make informed decisions about your future career path. First-Hand Accounts: Written by seasoned medical professionals, this book provides authentic first-hand accounts of the rigors and triumphs experienced throughout medical training. Learn from their experiences and use their wisdom to navigate your own journey with confidence. Balancing Life and Work: Discover the secrets to maintaining a healthy work-life balance in the demanding world of medicine. On Becoming a Doctor offers practical tips on managing stress, fostering personal well-being, and nurturing a fulfilling personal life alongside a thriving medical career. Residency Success Strategies: Unravel the complexities of the residency application process and equip yourself with indispensable strategies to stand out in this highly competitive arena. Our expert advice will empower you to excel during your residency and launch a successful medical career. Patient Stories: Be inspired by heartwarming and insightful patient stories that illustrate the transformative power of compassionate healthcare. Learn how to provide exceptional patient care and forge meaningful connections with those you serve. Navigating Medical Challenges: From medical ethics dilemmas to emotional resilience, On Becoming a Doctor addresses the diverse challenges doctors encounter. Equip yourself with the tools to overcome obstacles and make a lasting impact on the lives of your patients. Thriving Beyond Residency: Beyond residency lies a vast landscape of opportunities. Learn about alternative career paths, research opportunities, and potential for leadership roles within the medical community. Unlock your potential and discover what lies ahead in your fulfilling medical journey. Empower yourself with knowledge, empathy, and resilience as you embrace the transformative journey of becoming a doctor. A perfect graduation gift for any aspiring medical professional!

How to Think Like a Doctor describes how a physician thinks. Whether you are a Medical Assistant student, a nursing student, a pre-med student, a new medical student, or even going into health care administration, you will benefit from discovering the process of how an M.D. or D.O. views any particular patient encounter and arrives at a diagnosis. The Diagnosis is key and ties together all of the other elements of the encounter so that a Plan can be formed to make the patient better. Improvement in health is why doctors do what they do and now you can gain an insight into that thought process. Even if you are not a health care student or provider, How to Think Like a Doctor will make you a more knowledgeable patient. My best patients are those who become experts about their own bodies and their own medical and health issues. In addition to diseases, doctors address pain issues, mental health issues, dietary concerns, and even societal ills. Some physicians strive to make healthy people even better. So if you fall into any of these categories, you will benefit from this book.

“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician” that explores the doctor-patient relationship, the flaws in our health care system, and how doctors’ emotions impact medical care (Boston Globe) While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. Physicians are assumed to be objective, rational beings, easily able to detach as they guide patients and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. But understanding doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice can make all the difference on giving and getting the best medical care. Digging deep into the lives of doctors, Dr. Danielle Ofri examines the daunting range of emotions—shame, anger, empathy, frustration, hope, pride, occasionally despair, and sometimes even love—that permeate the contemporary doctor-patient connection. Drawing on scientific studies, including some surprising research, Dr. Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care. Dr. Ofri takes us into the swirling heart of patient care, telling stories of caregivers caught up and occasionally torn down by the whirlwind life of doctoring. She admits to the humiliation of an error that nearly killed one of her patients. She mourns when a beloved patient is denied a heart transplant. She tells the riveting stories of an intern traumatized when she is forced to let a newborn die in her arms, and of a doctor whose daily glass of wine to handle the frustrations of the ER escalates into a destructive addiction. Ofri also reveals that doctors cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness.

A step-by-step road map for a person interested in becoming a doctor of medicine.

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. "The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected. When I see patients in the hospital or in my office who are suddenly, surprisingly ill, what they really want to know is, ‘What is wrong with me?’ They want a road map that will help them manage their new surroundings. The ability to give this unnerving and unfamiliar place a name, to know it—on some level—restores a measure of control, independent of whether or not that diagnosis comes attached to a cure. Because, even today, a diagnosis is frequently all a good doctor has to offer." A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory—making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment—only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU—bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent—and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis. Never in human history have doctors had the knowledge, the tools, and the skills that they have today to diagnose illness and disease. And yet mistakes are made, diagnoses missed, symptoms or tests misunderstood. In this high-tech world of modern medicine, Sanders shows us that knowledge, while essential, is not sufficient to unravel the complexities of illness. She presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness—the diagnosis—revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying. Through dramatic stories of patients with baffling symptoms, Sanders portrays the absolute necessity and surprising difficulties of getting the patient’s story, the challenges of the physical exam, the pitfalls of doctor-to-doctor communication, the vagaries of tests, and the near calamity of diagnostic errors. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Sanders chronicles the real-life drama of doctors solving these difficult medical mysteries that not only illustrate the art and science of diagnosis, but often save the patients’ lives.

Table of Contents Forward by Steve Solomon Chapter 1: How I Became a Hygienist Chapter 2: The Nature and Cause of Disease Chapter 3: Fasting Chapter 4: Colon Cleansing Chapter 5: Diet and Nutrition Chapter 6: Vitamins and Other Food Supplements Chapter 7: The Analysis of Disease States—Helping the Body Recover Appendices

I Think I Need to Talk to a Doctor tells author Jason Ventre's life story-so far anyway. He shares his history for many reasons, but chief among them is the need to explain his life experiences so that others may try to avoid having them. Diagnosed with bipolar syndrome, he talks honestly about the repercussions of his decisions-mostly bad ones, when considered on a scale from moderate to devastating. He still deals with repercussions from those choices on a daily basis. From describing the funny challenges of childhood and trying to figure out what mattered and what didn't to recalling his failed relationships, Ventre paints an honest picture of a boy who was just different. Rather than trying to change who he was, he just went with whatever he felt-with unforgettable results. Now he takes those results and unapologetically turns them into lessons. Ventre reminds us that we all have pasts full of mistakes; although it might be a great thought to say that we can learn from our past, history has shown us that we're more likely to just "think" that we've learned from our mistakes as we continue to make them. I Think I Need to Talk to a Doctor shows that sometimes laughing at our irrational decisions might be the only way to grow from them and hopefully teach others not to travel down the same road of lost maturity.