Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You

As a retired physician (oncologist) , who is now on the receiving end of medical care, I found this book to be very thought provoking and valuable. Being on the physician side of making decisions is very different from now being on the patient's side of the struggle. There really are many times no easy or certain answers. Drs and patients must recognize and understand the "uncertainties" that are ever present in modern medicine.

I expected a more analytical, practical book. The subtitle, "How to Decide What Is Right for You," suggests something of an outline or blueprint. Instead, this small, well-written book, about 200 pages long, presents several handfuls of case studies of how apparently very sharp, apparently well-educated individuals with life/death illnesses made decisions about their medical care. We're not talking about treating the sprained ankle or sinus drainage. The physician authors, husband and wife Groopman and Hartzband, add their insights about the decision-making processes, and along the way throw in useful bits and pieces of information about the health care business complex. So, while the reader is not really given much of anything in the way of a decision-making process, he/she is still given plenty to think about by two thoughtful and caring practitioners. Surprisingly to me, money is not an object in any of the case studies, either from the standpoint of the providers, that is, doctors, hosptials, etc., (with the one obvious exception of the specialists who recommend their approach to the solution of the patient's problem) or from that of the consumer, that is, the patient and society as a whole who finance the ventures.

I was disappointed with this book, and was going to award it only 2 or 3 stars. But, on second thought, I found some useful tidbits in it, and I believe that if it helps even one patient to arrive at a better choice of medical treatment, this book is well worth reading.I won't summarize "Your Medical Mind" here, but would refer you to the excellent review posted recently by Dr. Davis Liu.If you have time to read only one of Dr. Groopman's books, I would strongly recommend "How Doctors Think," which beginning to end gives valuable insights into medical decision making. The essential message there is that, even though nearly all doctors have the patients' best interests at heart and are fully competent in their respective specialties, doctors are likely to have some degree of tunnel vision which prevents them from tailoring the "statistically best" treatment to the individual patient. "How Doctors Think" gives the sage advice that patients are best served by being informed and proactive about diagnostic and treatment options.

When I saw the title I was skeptical. The title greatly understates the power and importance of the data evaluation and analysis techniques described, discusion of the psychology of problem solving, and the really great section on handling living wills and end-of-life medical care. It is not a "how to do it", nor is it about stress management. Although it contains many insightful case histories, it does not imply that you should "do what they did" but helps you seek the needed knowledge and understanding of emotions, wants and needs, as well as your tolerance for possible bad outcomes.I am encountering exactly the kinds of dilemmas it describes with my recently diagnosed prostate cancer, and it has renewed my hope for coming up with the best analysis and treatment.I am buying a second copy for a good friend with a son dying of cancer (as well as having many serious health issues himself)

The product was very new.The book describes a broad picture on medicine-practicing and the medical decision-making process of different types of patients. The decision can be affected by the patients' background, the doctors' biases, etc. This book explore parts in the practice of medicine that I could not imagine before. The authors also share their own story.This book also has a hard cover version, but I prefer this one because it's easier to bend to soft cover.