Get Inside Your Doctor's Head
10 Commonsense Rules for Making Better Decisions about Medical Care
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This concise and accessible guide to modern healthcare explains the 10 rules of medical decision-making—and when to break them.
With so many medical tests and treatments to consider and so much information out there—some of it contradictory—it can be difficult to know what's right for you. In Get Inside Your Doctor's Head, Dr. Phillip K. Peterson explains the Ten Rules of Internal Medicine. Using real case examples, Peterson shows how following these commonsense rules will help you make better decisions about your medical care.
Get Inside Your Doctor's Head provides advice about when to seek treatment, when to get another opinion, and when to let time take its course. Using the Ten Rules can help you communicate more effectively with doctors and help you weigh their recommendations.
As with all rules, there are 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Peterson, a University of Minnesota Medical School professor and infectious disease specialist, aims to help patients (and doctors) navigate daunting health-care dilemmas with 10 deceptively simple "rules": "If you don't know what you're doing, don't do anything"; if what you're doing seems to be working, continue; if it isn't, think about doing something else; always get a second opinion about a proposed invasive procedure; your doctor can't make you feel better if you don't have symptoms; "never trust anyone completely"; most things are what they seem except when they're not; "what your doctor doesn't know could kill you"; "timing is everything, and sometimes time is the cure"; and "caring is always important medicine." Peterson allows that each rule is nuanced and may need to be broken occasionally (except for the last rule), and he presents both heartening and heartbreaking cases to illustrate each. It's a small book, but it's full of big and invaluable advice. "The authoritarian approach of your doctor knows best' is gone," Peterson states, and while his sagest wisdom isn't on the list, it could be a life-saver: patients need to speak up.
