Distracted Doctoring

Examining-room computers require doctors to record detailed data about their patients, yet reduce the time clinicians can spend listening attentively to the very people they are trying to help. This book presents original essays by distinguished experts in their fields, addressing this critical problem and making an urgent case for reform, because while electronic technology has revolutionized the practice of medicine, it also poses a unique challenge to health care. Smartphones in the hands of doctors and nurses have become dangerously seductive devices that can endanger their patients. Distracted Doctoring is written for anesthesiologists and surgeons, as well as general practitioners, nurses, and health care administrators and students. Chapters include Electronic Challenges to Patient Safety and Care; Distraction, Disengagement, and the Purpose of Medicine; and Managing Distractions through Advocacy, Education, and Change.

When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity. By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt's conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers - Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt's argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring example, Roholt develops the classification of musical instruments as focal things, contending that musical performance can be fruitfully understood as a focal practice. Through this exploration of what generates meaning in life, Roholt makes us rethink the place we allow smartphones to occupy in the everyday. But he remains cautiously optimistic. This thoughtful, needed interrogation of smartphones shows how we can establish a positive role for technologies within our lives.

After the many bureaucratic changes that followed the passing of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and other legislation, patient care has become secondary to satisfying the whims of government and giant insurance company administrators, who are in total control. The result is a web of complicated rules and misguided programs whose chief effect has been to distract doctors and nurses from their proper focus on patient care. Access to health care now depends on the ability of patients, doctors, and nurses to navigate in and around this cumbersome and ever-changing system. Written by a practicing doctor and based on years of real-life experience, Distracted takes the unique view that it is not the American health care system that is broken—the problem lies in the administration of health care. The solution is simplicity where there is complexity. The solution is an elegant use of health information technology to foster improved care. It is putting control of health care decisions back with those who know best, patients and their health care teams. The solution is caring for patients with fewer distractions.

The diagnosis and management of ADHD co-occurring with other disorders such as anxiety, depression and personality disorders remain major challenges for clinicians treating all age groups. This book guides clinicians through each step in the diagnosis and management of the comorbidities of adult ADHD on the basis of essential case studies describing psychiatric disorders that frequently occur with ADHD. Each case includes a diagnosis section and management section and is accompanied by questions and answers concerning the most important aspects in diagnosing and managing both ADHD and the comorbid disorders. Drawn from actual clinical encounters, the case studies also feature ample current and valid references.

Groundbreaking and comprehensive, Driven to Distraction has been a lifeline to the approximately eighteen million Americans who are thought to have ADHD. Now the bestselling book is revised and updated with current medical information for a new generation searching for answers. Through vivid stories and case histories of patients—both adults and children—Hallowell and Ratey explore the varied forms ADHD takes, from hyperactivity to daydreaming. They dispel common myths, offer helpful coping tools, and give a thorough accounting of all treatment options as well as tips for dealing with a diagnosed child, partner, or family member. But most importantly, they focus on the positives that can come with this “disorder”—including high energy, intuitiveness, creativity, and enthusiasm.

Contains articles on the White Mountains and a map.