Let’s warm up with a quick arithmetic problem, which I want you to do in your head.
What is one thousand plus forty?
Now add another thousand
And thirty more
Plus twenty
Plus another thousand
And finally, add an additional ten.
What’s the answer? According to Dean Buonomano, in his excellent book Brain Bugs, the majority of people give an answer of five thousand, instead of the correct answer of 3100.
“Most of us can find a face in the crowd faster than we can come up with the answer to eight times seven. The truth is—to put it bluntly—we suck at numerical calculations… (Read more and view comments at Forbes)
New Review of Critical Decisions
The book Critical Decisions: How You and Your Doctor Can Make the Right Medical Choices Together by Peter A. Ubel, MD effectively makes the case that good medical decisions require empowered patients, clinicians prepared to support them and techniques to help them communicate.[1] Better than any existing literature, this book highlights techniques and behaviors that clinicians must use to support the empowered patient, and suggests significant improvements to decision aids.
The book is informative, comprehensive, and accessible. It is an important resource for clinicians and patients who want to learn ways to better communicate to each other in making health care/medical decisions.
The first part of the book, “The Rise of the Empowered Patient,” presents the history of medical decision making — starting with ancient Greece and Hippocrates, continuing with the ethics of experimentation of the mid 20th century, and concluding with a detailed account of the seeds of the empowered patient movement starting in the 60s… (Read more at the Journal of Participatory Medicine)
ACA Boosts Shared Decision Making
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 as easy-to-understand videos laying out the pros and cons of treatment choices, to help them make decisions along with their doctors.
The idea has been around for several years and is now getting a boost from a few state legislatures and the federal health care reform law. At least three multimillion-dollar grants have been awarded through the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, which was created by the health care law, to test and expand shared decision-making models… (Read more and view comments at Politico)
Physicians and Patients Make Best Decisions Together
Imagine yourself in this patient’s situation. You have just found out you have cancer, and the next phrase out of your doctor’s mouth is “You’re going to die with this cancer rather than of this cancer.” Which word do you think will jump out of that sentence? “With”? “Of”?
My money is on “die.” – Modified from Critical Decisions, pg. 99
In Critical Decisions, Peter Ubel describes a common situation of a urologist explaining a prostate cancer diagnosis to a patient. In this exam room, the physician and the patient are on two different wavelengths. The doctor is trying to assuage the fears of the patient but is emphasizing technical details about the patient’s condition without first relating to the patient’s emotional shock from hearing a cancer diagnosis. Ubel suggests even a small acknowledgement of the patient’s emotional state could improve the situation. For instance, saying “I know it feels awful to be told you have cancer, but you should know that your cancer is curable. We can treat this.” (Critical Decisions, pg. 100)… (Read more and view comments at Duke Research Blog)
Me, the Writer's Manual?
Here is a link to my guest spot on You, The Owner’s Manual radio show, hosted by New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Roizen. It is a lively interview, worth listening to if for no other reason than Roizen’s great taste in writing: “I really enjoyed the book,” he said to me at one point “…where did you learn to be such a great writer?” Very nice to get such feedback. He added on later: “It’s a book for everyone’s bathroom shelf, if not the plane or any place else. It’s a wonderful book.” It is this kind of praise that keeps me motivated. Really gratifying to hear people’s enthusiastic reaction to Critical Decisions!
Video Introduction to Critical Decisions
Here is my latest Critical Decisions video. This one gives a broad introduction to the reasons I wrote the book.
Marketplace Interview with Tess Vigeland
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 it is hard to be assertive when you are half naked.
How Doctors Can Reclaim Their Decision Making Power
It is not an easy time to be a physician in the United States. Attempt to order an expensive test for a patient and an insurance company is likely to second guess your decision. Try upholding the bottom line for your medical practice and the government will probably start questioning whether you are overcharging for your services. To make matters worse, even patients are getting into the act, with an increasing number of them embracing their role… (Read more and view comments at Forbes)
Critical Decision Excerpt
If you want a sneak peak at Critical Decisions, my Aussie publisher has an excerpt up on its website. And you get to see their cover design too. Here is a link to the excerpt. It is from the prologue. Hope it whets your appetite. For more!
Discussing Critical Decisions with Tavis Smiley
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.