Author(s): Jerome Groopman

Health & Self Help

On average, a physician will interrupt a patient describing her symptoms within 18 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. Jerome Groopman pinpoints the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He 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 influence our health. It details the warning signs of erroneous medical thinking and reveals how new technologies may actually hinder accurate diagnoses. It offers direct, intelligent questions patients can ask their doctors. Groopman draws on a wealth of research, extensive interviews with doctors, and his own experience as a doctor and patient, to reveal a profound new view of 21st-century medical practice.