Doctors And Their Patients

With every passing year, the mutual mistrust between doctor and patient widens, as doctors retreat into resentment and patients become increasingly disillusioned with the quality of care. Rich in anecdote as well as science 'Doctors and Their Patients' describes how both have arrived at this sad shape.

Can refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients lead to better health? Despite modern medicine’s infatuation with high-tech gadgetry, the single most powerful diagnostic tool is the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. However, what patients say and what doctors hear are often two vastly different things. Patients, anxious to convey their symptoms, feel an urgency to “make their case” to their doctors. Doctors, under pressure to be efficient, multitask while patients speak and often miss the key elements. Add in stereotypes, unconscious bias, conflicting agendas, and fear of lawsuits and the risk of misdiagnosis and medical errors multiplies dangerously. Though the gulf between what patients say and what doctors hear is often wide, Dr. Danielle Ofri proves that it doesn’t have to be. Through the powerfully resonant human stories that Dr. Ofri’s writing is renowned for, she explores the high-stakes world of doctor-patient communication that we all must navigate. Reporting on the latest research studies and interviewing scholars, doctors, and patients, Dr. Ofri reveals how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today. While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.

A look at the emotional side of medicine—the shame, fear, anger, anxiety, empathy, and even love that affect patient care 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 doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice have a profound impact on medical care. And 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. In What Doctors Feel, Dr. Danielle Ofri has taken on the task of dissecting the hidden emotional responses of doctors, and how these directly influence patients. How do the stresses of medical life—from paperwork to grueling hours to lawsuits to facing death—affect the medical care that doctors can offer their patients? Digging deep into the lives of doctors, 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. Danielle Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care. With her renowned eye for dramatic detail, 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 and her forever fear of making another. 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. But doctors don’t only feel fear, grief, and frustration. Ofri also reveals that doctors tell bad jokes about “toxic sock syndrome,” cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness. The stories here reveal the undeniable truth that emotions have a distinct effect on how doctors care for their patients. For both clinicians and patients, understanding what doctors feel can make all the difference in giving and getting the best medical care.

"In Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, physician scientists Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli uncover the eye-opening data that compassion could be a wonder drug for the 21st century. Now, for the first time ever, a rigorous review of the science - coupled with captivating stories from the front lines of medicine - demonstrates that human connection in health care matters in astonishing ways. Never before has all the evidence been synthesized together in one place."--Amazon.

Doctors, as strong, clever, resourceful professionals, are heir to human frailty and illness, like anyone else. This book is about diagnosable, label-able mental illness such as eating disorders, affective disorders and, sometimes, psychosis. More than that, it is a book about doctors, many fully-functioning, practising doctors, who suffer from these illnesses, and the unique insights and problems that arise when the doctor is the patient, especially when questions of insight and judgement are blurred.

“People come to us for help. They come for health and strength.” With these simple words David Mendel begins Proper Doctoring, a book about what it means (and takes) to be a good doctor, and for that reason very much a book for patients as well as doctors—which is to say a book for everyone. In crisp, clear prose, he introduces readers to the craft of medicine and shows how to practice it. Discussing matters ranging from the most basic—how doctors should dress and how they should speak to patients—to the taking of medical histories, the etiquette of examinations, and the difficulties of diagnosis, Mendel moves on to consider how the doctor can best serve patients who suffer from prolonged illness or face death. Throughout he keeps in sight the fundamental moral fact that the relationship between doctor and patient is a human one before it is a professional one. As he writes with characteristic concision, “The trained and experienced doctor puts himself, or his nearest and dearest, in the patient’s position, and asks himself what he would do if he were advising himself or his family. No other advice is acceptable; no other is justifiable.” Proper Doctoring is a book that is admirably direct, as well as wise, witty, deeply humane, and, frankly, indispensable.

Do you feel that your doctor doesn't pay attention to what you say? Does your doctor cut you off when you try to explain how you feel? Do you think your doctor could remember your name without referring to your chart? Does your doctor seem to be in such a hurry that you don't even get a chance to ask your most important questions? Do you spend more time waiting than actually talking to your doctor? Do you understand what your doctor says? At one time or another, we have all had these complaints. This book will teach you how to ask the right questions, understand the answers, and show you how to take more control of your visits to the doctor and your own health. This is the first book in which communication pioneer Barbara M. Korsch, M.D., reveals what she has learned about the doctor-patient relationship dilemma during almost half a century of investigation. In clear, simple language, Dr. Korsch answers most of our common questions: How do I know when I'm sick enough to go to the doctor? How do I know if it's serious enough to go to the emergency room? What do I do if I can't follow the advice my doctor gives me? She walks us through a typical visit to the doctor, showing us how to prepare ourselves so we don't forget the question that has been worrying us for weeks as soon as we walk through the doctor's door. She gives important tips on how to survive the dreaded hospital experience. And she offers insight into the doctor's side of the relationship, showing how doctors are trained to be task-oriented and how their natural human sympathy is discouraged throughout their careers. Finally, she offers patients useful strategies for humanizing the relationship. Korsch's helpful, commonsense recommendations are extensively illustrated with real-life doctor-patient conversations which she recorded on audio and video tape over the course of the last thirty years. She was one of the first medical professionals to emphasize the importance of teaching doctors how to talk to patients as part of their medical training. She serves as consultant and lecturer to medical schools, hospitals, and medical practices throughout the world to help the next generation of doctors communicate with their patients. Above all, after years of research, she has found abundant evidence that the relationship patients form with their doctors directly determines the quality of the care they receive. This is a vital book for anyone who is concerned about their health and who wants to take control of their medical care. So much depends upon asking the right questions and on finding a doctor who will listen to you. This book gives you the tools and the confidence to do just that.