I recently had the pleasure of discussing my book with Tavis Smiley on his wonderful PBS television show. As you will see, we had some fun back and forth, while still covering some pretty fundamental ground about how to help patients participate more actively in their medical decisions.
Here is a short video introducing one of the themes of Critical Decisions: the challenge of making shared decisions when physicians unwittingly deluge their patients with too much jargon laden information. Feel free to forward the link to your friends.
Sepsis is a brutal killer. It often starts after a microorganism gets loose in your bloodstream, spreading to organs far and wide, releasing deadly toxins along the way. In response, your body releases toxins of its own, chemicals designed to kill the invading organism but that, all too often, damage your body, too, leaving you…
I write frequently about the importance of perspective taking in clinician/patient interaction. Seeing the world through other people’s eyes is also a crucial moral and political skill. No surprise then that Abe Lincoln showed great perspective taking abilities. Consider these words, from an 1854 speech on slavery: I think I have no prejudice against the…
Medicine, today, is supposed to be “patient-centered.” But sometimes the patients feel a little off balance. What can they do when everyone seems to be trying to push aggressive, expensive treatments on them? One solution — or a partial solution — is known as shared decision making, in which patients are given specific tools, such…
I had the great pleasure of speaking with Tess Vigeland, host of Marketplace Money. We discussed my book Critical Decisions in the context of what shared decision making means about patients paying attention to the cost of their medical care. Listen to the whole segment, because she is a great interviewer. And find out why…
I thought I would pass along this hilarious cartoon, suggesting a new way to “nudge” patients to use fewer antibiotics. Of course that nudge requires your doctor to be Batman, and Batman to be a pretty assertive type of physician: (Click here to view comments)