The Human Side of Medicine

The Human Side of Medicine PDF Author: Laurence A. Savett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313077231
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
At a time of great change in the technology and delivery of medical care, the timelessness and permanence of the non-technical aspects of medicine—the human side—are of profound value to patients and physicians alike. With more than 30 years of medical practice, teaching, advising, and mentoring medical students and undergraduates, Savett champions two premises: first, that the importance of physicians mastering the human side of medicine is as critical as learning its biology and technology; and second, that this can be taught. Attending to the human side refines diagnosis and treatment by recognizing the uniqueness of each patient's experience, and it enriches the experience for all those in the caring professions. Physicians who have always put their patients' interests first and never compromised their professional values have preserved their identity, vitality, and enthusiasm as caring doctors. This is a book about what keeps the practice of medicine stimulating: not fascinating cases, but fascinating people and relationships, the best reasons to enter medicine. Learning the human side of medicine, asserts Savett, will help attract talented and compassionate people to the field. Full of stories and lessons, ^IThe Human Side of Medicine^R is important reading for those considering a career in medicine and related professions, those already practicing—and patients.

The Human Side of Medicine

The Human Side of Medicine PDF Author: Laurence A. Savett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313077231
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
At a time of great change in the technology and delivery of medical care, the timelessness and permanence of the non-technical aspects of medicine—the human side—are of profound value to patients and physicians alike. With more than 30 years of medical practice, teaching, advising, and mentoring medical students and undergraduates, Savett champions two premises: first, that the importance of physicians mastering the human side of medicine is as critical as learning its biology and technology; and second, that this can be taught. Attending to the human side refines diagnosis and treatment by recognizing the uniqueness of each patient's experience, and it enriches the experience for all those in the caring professions. Physicians who have always put their patients' interests first and never compromised their professional values have preserved their identity, vitality, and enthusiasm as caring doctors. This is a book about what keeps the practice of medicine stimulating: not fascinating cases, but fascinating people and relationships, the best reasons to enter medicine. Learning the human side of medicine, asserts Savett, will help attract talented and compassionate people to the field. Full of stories and lessons, ^IThe Human Side of Medicine^R is important reading for those considering a career in medicine and related professions, those already practicing—and patients.

Albert Einstein, the Human Side

Albert Einstein, the Human Side PDF Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691023687
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
One of the 20th century's most profound thinkers not only transformed the direction of scientific endeavor but also influenced other fields such as psychology, linguistics, and ethics. This volume comprises 23 papers delivered at a 1979 symposium and includes examinations of Einstein's impact on scholarship, culture, and more.

White Coat, Black Hat

White Coat, Black Hat PDF Author: Carl Elliott
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807061433
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Over the last twenty-five years, medicine and consumerism have been on an unchecked collision course, but, until now, the fallout from their impact has yet to be fully uncovered. A writer for The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, Carl Elliott ventures into the uncharted dark side of medicine, shining a light on the series of social and legislative changes that have sacrificed old-style doctoring to the values of consumer capitalism. Along the way, he introduces us to the often shifty characters who work the production line in Big Pharma: from the professional guinea pigs who test-pilot new drugs and the ghostwriters who pen “scientific” articles for drug manufacturers to the PR specialists who manufacture “news” bulletins. We meet the drug reps who will do practically anything to make quota in an ever-expanding arms race of pharmaceutical gift-giving; the “thought leaders” who travel the world to enlighten the medical community about the wonders of the latest release; even, finally, the ethicists who oversee all that commercialized medicine has to offer from their pharma-funded perches. Taking the pulse of the medical community today, Elliott discovers the culture of deception that has become so institutionalized many people do not even see it as a problem. Head-turning stories and a rogue’s gallery of colorful characters become his springboard for exploring larger ethical issues surrounding money. Are there certain things that should not be bought and sold? In what ways do the ethics of business clash with the ethics of medical care? And what is wrong with medical consumerism anyway? Elliott asks all these questions and more as he examines the underbelly of medicine.

The Human Side of Cancer

The Human Side of Cancer PDF Author: Jimmie C. Holland
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061852783
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
For more than twenty years, Dr. Holland has pioneered the study of psychological problems of cancer patients and their families -- whom she calls "the real experts." In The Human Side of Cancer, she shares what she has learned from all of them about facing this life-threatening illness and what truly helps along the cancer journey. This book is the next best thing to sitting in Dr. Holland's office and talking with her about the uncertainty and anxiety elicited by this disease. And it is a book that inspires hope -- through stories of the simple courage of ordinary people confronting cancer.

Medicine of the Person

Medicine of the Person PDF Author: Professor KWM Fulford
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1846425506
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Medicine of the Person is an international, multi-faith exploration of the demonstrable need to integrate the scientific basis of healthcare more fully with spiritual, religious and ethical values. Informed by the principle of 'medicine of the person', the contributors argue for a medical practice which takes account of personal relationships, spirituality, ethics and theology in keeping with the ideas and beliefs of Paul Tournier, an influential Swiss general practitioner whose thinking has had a substantial impact on routine patient care relevant to national health services. Bridging the gap between the basic sciences and faith traditions, the contributors discuss notions of personhood in different faiths and its consideration in spirituality and mental health issues, general practice issues, public health, home care for the elderly and neuroscience. This volume offers a broad spectrum of approaches to the needs of patients and is a key text for students of the health disciplines, and practitioners and managers in these fields.

Complications

Complications PDF Author: Atul Gawande
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1429972106
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A brilliant and courageous doctor reveals, in gripping accounts of true cases, the power and limits of modern medicine. Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is -- complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human. Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He also shows us what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. Gawande offers a richly detailed portrait of the people and the science, even as he tackles the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives. At once tough-minded and humane, Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties that lie at the heart of modern medicine, yet always alive to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor. Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

What Doctors Feel

What Doctors Feel PDF Author: Danielle Ofri, MD
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807073334
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician” that explores the doctor-patient relationship, the flaws in our health care system, and how doctors’ emotions impact medical care (Boston Globe) While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. Physicians are assumed to be objective, rational beings, easily able to detach as they guide patients and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. But understanding doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice can make all the difference on giving and getting the best medical care. Digging deep into the lives of doctors, Dr. Danielle Ofri examines the daunting range of emotions—shame, anger, empathy, frustration, hope, pride, occasionally despair, and sometimes even love—that permeate the contemporary doctor-patient connection. Drawing on scientific studies, including some surprising research, Dr. Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care. Dr. Ofri takes us into the swirling heart of patient care, telling stories of caregivers caught up and occasionally torn down by the whirlwind life of doctoring. She admits to the humiliation of an error that nearly killed one of her patients. She mourns when a beloved patient is denied a heart transplant. She tells the riveting stories of an intern traumatized when she is forced to let a newborn die in her arms, and of a doctor whose daily glass of wine to handle the frustrations of the ER escalates into a destructive addiction. Ofri also reveals that doctors cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness.

To Err Is Human

To Err Is Human PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309068371
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine

Medical Decision Making

Medical Decision Making PDF Author: Harold C. Sox
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118341562
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Medical Decision Making provides clinicians with a powerful framework for helping patients make decisions that increase the likelihood that they will have the outcomes that are most consistent with their preferences. This new edition provides a thorough understanding of the key decision making infrastructure of clinical practice and explains the principles of medical decision making both for individual patients and the wider health care arena. It shows how to make the best clinical decisions based on the available evidence and how to use clinical guidelines and decision support systems in electronic medical records to shape practice guidelines and policies. Medical Decision Making is a valuable resource for all experienced and learning clinicians who wish to fully understand and apply decision modelling, enhance their practice and improve patient outcomes. “There is little doubt that in the future many clinical analyses will be based on the methods described in Medical Decision Making, and the book provides a basis for a critical appraisal of such policies.” - Jerome P. Kassirer M.D., Distinguished Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, US and Visiting Professor, Stanford Medical School, US

Surviving Medical School

Surviving Medical School PDF Author: Robert H. Coombs
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780761905288
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Based on years of studying and working with medical students Surviving Medical School offers an orientation to the hectic, anxious area of medical education and practical advice for thriving in that environment. Topics covered include: students' expectations in relation to intellectual and emotional capacities; career doubt and alienation; clinical experience; physician fallibility, internships; and professional practice.