Your Health Your Decisions

In nearly every medical-decision-making encounter, the physician is at the center of the discussion, with the patient the recipient of the physician's decisions. Dr. Robert Alan McNutt starts from a very different premise: the patient should be at the center. McNutt challenges the physician-directed, medical-expertise model of making decisions, presenting a practical approach augmented by formal exercises designed to give patients the tools and confidence to compare and contrast their health-care options so they can make their own choices. He addresses a number of scenarios, including heart disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer—conditions that pose a range of choices that patients may face about diagnoses and treatments. After providing a clear explanation of what is the highest quality medical-decision-making information, McNutt teaches patients to use that information to weigh the harms and benefits of their treatment options, empowering them to ask critical questions as they take a stronger hand in their own care. Your Health, Your Decisions moves from specific scenarios that commonly baffle patients to a systematic exploration of how to make medical decisions. By offering patients the tools they need to be full partners in their own health care, McNutt demystifies what can be a bewildering and even terrifying process.

We've all been there, sittinguncomfortably in a paper gownas a doctor impassively describesour prognosis. Sometimes it's simple andtreatable. Other times we get news wecan't fathom and then are faced withdecisions that are literally life and death. In this revolutionary book, physician,behavioral scientist, and bioethicist PeterUbel, M.D., reveals how hidden dynamicsin the doctor/patient relationship keepus and our loved ones from making thebest medical choices. From doctors whostruggle to explain, to patients who failto properly listen, countless factors alterthe course of our care, causing things togo seriously awry. With riveting stories of Ubel's own experiencein the field, his groundbreakingresearch, and his personal journey walkingloved ones through difficult treatmentchoices, Critical Decisions will foreverchange the way we communicate insidehospitals and medical offices, wherethoughtful decision making matters themost. Dr. Ubel has been on both endsof the stethoscope, and in this book,he shows how patients and doctorscan learn to become partners and worktogether to make the right choices. Fromchoosing to get surgery, to discussingthe side effects of a blood pressure medication,we can finally discover the toolsto improve communication, understandthe issues, and make confident decisionsfor our future health and happiness.

There are basically two categories of books on decision-making. One tells stories of how intuition guides decision-making. The other delineates a formal approach, based on decision-trees or matrices, often impenetrable to real-life decision makers. This book combines the best elements of both perspectives in a way that can be easily understood by all who are struggling with complex decisions, either as individuals or as organisations. It demonstrates how intuition and psychological insights can be harnessed to design relevant models and decision strategies, and describes how goals can be adequately formed and operationalised. Finally, the book integrates these processes in an analytical framework for decision-making.

A guide to seeking and assessing health advice from many sources.

For all the talk about personalized medicine, our health care system remains a top-down, doctor-driven system where individuals are too often bit players in their own health decisions. In The Decision Tree, Thomas Goetz proposes a new strategy for thinking about health, one that applies cutting-edge technology to put us at the center of the equation and explains how the new frontier of health care can impact each of our lives.

Enhancing your decision-making skills to make smarter decisions is the best way you can purposefully improve your life.

Drs. Groopman and Hartzband reveal a clear path for making the right medical choices. Such factors as authority figures, statistics, other patients' stories, technology, and natural healing are key factors that shape choices.

There¿s only one person who is truly qualified to tell health care providers how you feel about different kinds of health care issues ¿ and that¿s you. But, what if you get sick, or injured so severely that you can¿t communicate with your doctors or family members? Many people assume that close family members automatically know what they want. But studies have shown that spouses guess wrong over half the time about what kinds of treatment their husbands or wives would want. This workbook has two parts: Part 1: The Basics. Introduces and discusses all of the components of advance care planning. Part 2: Resources. Contains additional help and further explanation of topics. Extremely controversial when published by the VA. Illustrations.