For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today. While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.

Do you feel that your doctor doesn't pay attention to what you say? Does your doctor cut you off when you try to explain how you feel? Do you think your doctor could remember your name without referring to your chart? Does your doctor seem to be in such a hurry that you don't even get a chance to ask your most important questions? Do you spend more time waiting than actually talking to your doctor? Do you understand what your doctor says? At one time or another, we have all had these complaints. This book will teach you how to ask the right questions, understand the answers, and show you how to take more control of your visits to the doctor and your own health. This is the first book in which communication pioneer Barbara M. Korsch, M.D., reveals what she has learned about the doctor-patient relationship dilemma during almost half a century of investigation. In clear, simple language, Dr. Korsch answers most of our common questions: How do I know when I'm sick enough to go to the doctor? How do I know if it's serious enough to go to the emergency room? What do I do if I can't follow the advice my doctor gives me? She walks us through a typical visit to the doctor, showing us how to prepare ourselves so we don't forget the question that has been worrying us for weeks as soon as we walk through the doctor's door. She gives important tips on how to survive the dreaded hospital experience. And she offers insight into the doctor's side of the relationship, showing how doctors are trained to be task-oriented and how their natural human sympathy is discouraged throughout their careers. Finally, she offers patients useful strategies for humanizing the relationship. Korsch's helpful, commonsense recommendations are extensively illustrated with real-life doctor-patient conversations which she recorded on audio and video tape over the course of the last thirty years. She was one of the first medical professionals to emphasize the importance of teaching doctors how to talk to patients as part of their medical training. She serves as consultant and lecturer to medical schools, hospitals, and medical practices throughout the world to help the next generation of doctors communicate with their patients. Above all, after years of research, she has found abundant evidence that the relationship patients form with their doctors directly determines the quality of the care they receive. This is a vital book for anyone who is concerned about their health and who wants to take control of their medical care. So much depends upon asking the right questions and on finding a doctor who will listen to you. This book gives you the tools and the confidence to do just that.

If medicine is so great, why are more people getting sick? Why don't people turn up for follow-up checks or take their pills properly? And why do patients sometimes seem to come from another planet?Medicine doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens between doctors and patients, who seem to inhabit very different worlds. It's not enough to think about medicine. We need to think more about patients. Thinking About Patients promotes a multidimensional model of medicine. It offers a practical guide to the psychological and social processes involved in practising medicine and in being a patient. It will help us to return to what medicine is all about - using our skills to serve patients.

What makes a good doctor? Are there bad doctors out there - and if so how do we protect patients from them? Can we inject more information, more trust and more assured competence into the medical system to solve these problems? Drawing on his years of dealing with patient concerns, Ron Paterson tackles these important questions. The book makes challenging arguments: that patients don't demand the sort of information about doctors that they should; that doctors who feel put upon by information overload, patient demands, complaints and growing requirements from employers, colleges, medical boards and government, will be resistant to any additional regulation of their activity; that doctors are reluctant to judge problem doctors and prefer the 'quiet chat'; and that current law and practice is lax when it comes to checking that doctors remain up-to-date. Paterson concludes the book with proposals to lift the veil of secrecy, to inform patients better and to revalidate doctors periodically, all key ways we might improve patient care. The Good Doctor will be prescribed reading for doctors, patients and policymakers—all of those determined to make sure patients get the medical care they deserve.

With every passing year, the mutual mistrust between doctor and patient widens, as doctors retreat into resentment and patients become increasingly disillusioned with the quality of care. Rich in anecdote as well as science 'Doctors and Their Patients' describes how both have arrived at this sad shape.

For the first time, a book considers the doctor/patient relationship in the long period and from a broad geographical perspective. Historians, anthropologists and doctors reflect on the factors that, from the Classical age until the present, have altered the care relationship and the power relations embedded within it. The book also highlights that communication and narration, understood as constitutive aspects of care, are the elements which link the past to the present. From the encounter between religion and medicine to the centuries-long struggle between doctors and patients in defence of their respective positions, from medical dramas to efforts to humanize medicine, the book describes the doctor/patient relationship in all its cultural, transnational and transtemporal dimensions.

Patients have personal strategies in solving the problems concerning their illness. Doctors have personal and professional strategies in solving the problems with their patients. This book explores the problematic triangle between doctors, patients and the illness, using illustrations from internal medicine, nephrology, cardiology, oncology and neurology. Enhancement of the doctor-patient interaction is an important contribution to the mutual reduction of stress and therefore the improvement of the course of (long-term) illness. The first part of the book describes reasons why the partnership between doctor and patient should be improved. The second part offers concrete and practical options to achieve that improvement.

This book is concerned with the organization, distribution, and financing of personal health services and goods-that is the instrumentalities through which doctors, hospitals, and others serve individual patients. This subject is technically known as "medical care" as distinguished from "medicine," or "medical services," or "medical practice," all of which relate primarily to the professional content. In common parlance, "medical care" is often used more broadly and at times, we find it necessary to do so. Indeed, the line of division is far from precise. For example, a balanced evaluation of different types of health insurance cannot overlook effects upon the quality of medical service, just as a doctor frequently cannot make a definitive diagnosis without knowledge of the patient's environment.