How Doctors Think is a non-fiction text written by Prof. Jerome Groopman, a renowned medic and principal AIDS and cancer researcher at the prestigious Harvard University’s School of Medicine. The first version of this informative 305-page book was published in 2007 by the Houghton Mifflin. As a professional physician, Jerome based his research on his experiences at the medical school of Massachusetts and numerous interactions with his patients and colleagues.
He reports on the art of medicine, communication, doctor-patient relationship, medical education, infectious diseases, medical testing, patient experience, technology and medical mistake. He reports that 15% of the patients get wrong diagnosis because, just like any other human being, all physicians make mistakes in diagnosis and treatment. Hence, in order to solve this problem, there should a change in the attitude and cooperation from all the concerned stakeholders: medical curriculum, insurers, physicians and patients (Jerome G. & Pamela H., 2011).
The doctors
It is a common belief that all doctors make mistakes. Jerome attributes this to poor training, which results into the strained relationship between the doctors, physicians, and the patients. He reports that at the medical school they are not given enough information on the role of communication, emotions, reason, consultation, compassion, cooperation, humility and other interpersonal skills.
As he argues, they are trained on the importance of outward processes, thus ignoring the fundamental psychological techniques that can build them emotionally. As obviously expected, this interferes with their work because it leads to lack of personal awareness, a vice associated with many physicians (Johnson, P. E. et al, 2008).
Besides, the training doctors are not sensitized to the role of communication skills in their duties. They lack listening, questioning, and understanding abilities, which should be the most important asset in this career. Therefore, they fail to give room to the patients, to ask them questions, and explain them their medical history, symptoms, and suggestions. This only gives room for misleading assumptions that leads to their making erroneous snap decisions (Jerome G. & Pamela H., 2011).
The doctors are also trained to behave like ‘catch as catch can’ computers. Instead of creating enough time to consult and think abstractly, they merely stand at a distance to watch their seniors do operations before making wrong judgments. They don’t use their wits in doing any duty vested on them, sticking to the established principles that make them reason like flow charts and algorithms.
Challenges facing doctors
As a result of the aforementioned drawbacks, these physicians are obliged to confront the following hurdles:
Topic one
Rachael Stein/Shira Stein’s case
In this case, Jerome tells us of the young Shira who was wrongly diagnosed by 30 doctors for a period of 15 years. It confirms that all doctors are prone to mistakes. Even if she had been repeatedly diagnosed with bulimia, irritable bowel and anorexia nervosa, it was later found out that she was actually suffering from an autoimmune disorder, called celiac disease. This was done by Dr. Myron Falchuk who did an extensive research by consulting a number of books and colleagues.
This made him settle on the right diagnosis that changed the life of this kid. So, it teaches other doctors to be compassionate and committed to their duties. They should not give up in their responsibilities. Similarly, the patients and other parents should borrow a leaf from her mother, who persistently took her from hospital to hospital looking for a permanent remedy which she later sought. Therefore, just like her, patients should be actively involved in their treatment by asking thought provoking questions and providing the doctors with the accurate information they need.
James Lock’s case
During Jerome’s research, he decided to interview Dr. Lock in his work place at the Boston’s Children’s Hospital. Unlike many people, Dr. Lock, through his interactions with Jerome, he accepted that he had made a lot of mistakes throughout his life as a doctor. However, he asserted that the best lesson he can learn from that is to use his experiences alongside the laid down principles to make improvements appropriately (Jerome G. & Pamela H., 2011).
This is clear evidence that all medics make mistakes. So, just like Dr. Lock, they should be ready to learn from their past so as to make the possible adjustments. It also teaches us that we should be honest and serve our clients without any form of discrimination or biasness. This will make them have confidence in us besides supporting our endeavors in whichever way possible.
Caren Delgado and Rick Duggan’s case
This case talks about the interactions between the Dr. Delgado Caren and Rick Duggan who had met in the line of their duties. Rick, a pharmaceutical representative took this opportunity to lure Caren, who was a young endocrinologist on internship to prescribe a new medication to allegedly inform her on the innovations in the medical field. Even if she is a very powerful and well connected pharmaceutical, Dr. Caren, is not popular with the emerging brains in this discipline. So, she was trying to use her authority to guide the intern in the best way to improve the medical care to the people.
This case helps us to understand how pharmacists can use all tactics to introduce a new prescription to be adopted. At times, they do this without considering the entire target population. That is why it took a long time to convince Rick and others to embrace the use of this new product. I think they never put the interest of the patient’s primary to reaping large sums of money from the sales of the new produce
Nathan Talumpqewa’s case
This involved a patient who visited several doctors but was given a wrong diagnosis. Later, he visited another physician who helped him to recover from the problem he had been in for a very long time. He later got a relief he had been yearning for.
References
Jerome G. & Pamela H. (2011). Your medical mind: how to decide what is right for you. The Penguin Press.
Johnson, P. E. et al (2008)). Expertise and error in diagnostic reasoning. Cognitive Science 5 (3): 235–283.
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
GET A PERFECT SCORE!!! 
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more