How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
from Mariner Books
How Doctors Think is a window into the mind of the physician and an insightful examination of the all-important relationship between doctors and their patients. In this myth-shattering work, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpints why doctors succeed and why they err. Most important, Groopman shows when and how doctors can -- with our help -- avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health.
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
by Atul Gawande
from Picador
The struggle to perform well is universal: each of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives may be on the line with any decision.
Atul Gawande, the New York Times bestselling author of Complications, examines, in riveting accounts of medical failure and triumph, how success is achieved in this complex and risk-filled profession. At once unflinching and compassionate, Better is an exhilarating journey, narrated by "arguably the best nonfiction doctor-writer around" (Salon.com).
Crush Step 3: The Ultimate USMLE Step 3 Review (Secrets)
by Adam Brochert
from Saunders
This best-selling resource is completely updated, and still the most easy-to-use and effective high-yield review for USMLE Step 3. Covering all specialties and subspecialties included on the exam, its perfect for the busy house officer who needs a review that hits all the important and commonly tested concepts in a concise format. Over 100 high-yield figures illustrate important concepts, conditions, and imaging modalities. Get tips, insights, and guidance on how best to prepare and what to expect with the reader-friendly, succinct, and engaging writing style of best-selling author Adam Brochert, MD.
- Features tips on the computer-based case simulations to prepare you for essential elements of the exam.
- Draws upon the personal experience of the best-selling author of USMLE reviews, Adam Brochert, MD, for trustworthy tips on how to study for the exam.
- Organizes material logically and allows quick spot review using bulleted and numbered lists, as well as many tables throughout the text.
- Presents updated case scenarios mirroring those on the Step 3 exam to keep you abreast of changes to the exam.
- Includes additional high-yield figures to be more relevant to recent administrations of the exam.
- Addresses current practice with updated diagnosis and treatment guidelines.
The Pact
by Sampson Davis
from Riverhead Trade
As teenagers from a rough part of Newark, New Jersey, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and George Jenkins had nothing special going for them except loving mothers (one of whom was a drug user) and above-average intelligence. Their first stroke of luck was testing into University High, one of Newark's three magnet high schools, and their second was finding each other. They were busy staying out of trouble (most of the time), and discovering the usual ways to skip class and do as little schoolwork as possible, when a recruitment presentation on Seton Hall University reignited George's childhood dream of becoming a dentist. The college was offering a tempting assistance package for minorities in its Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Plus Program. George convinced his two friends to go to college with him. They would help each other through. None of them would be allowed to drop out and be reabsorbed by the Newark streets.
Although this inspiring and easy-to-read book would be enjoyed by any teenager or educator, it seems perfect for minority youth, especially young men of junior high and high school age, who may lack more immediate role models. If the ordinary boys who made this pact could survive college and medical school by sticking together, then so can others. --Regina Marler
They grew up on the streets of Newark, facing city life's temptations, pitfalls, even jail. But one day these three young men made a pact. They promised each other they would all become doctors, and stick it out together through the long, difficult journey to attain that dream. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt are not only friends to this day-they are all doctors.
This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds. A story about changing your life, and the lives of those you love most...together.
The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine
by Sherwin B. Nuland
from Random House
“Life is short, and the Art so long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals, cooperate.”
–attributed to Hippocrates, c. 400 B.C.E.
The award-winning author of How We Die and The Art of Aging, venerated physician Sherwin B. Nuland has now written his most thoughtful and engaging book. The Uncertain Art is a superb collection of essays about the vital mix of expertise, intuition, sound judgment, and pure chance that plays a part in a doctor’s practice and life.
Drawing from history, the recent past, and his own life, Nuland weaves a tapestry of compelling stories in which doctors have had to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Topics include the primitive (and sometimes illegal) procedures doctors once practiced with good intentions, such as grave robbing and prescribing cocaine as an anesthetic (which resulted in a physician becoming America’s first cocaine addict); the curious “cures” for irregularity touted by people from the ancient Egyptians to the cereal titan John Harvey Kellogg and bodybuilder Charles Atlas; and healers grappling with today’s complex moral and ethical quandaries, from cloning to gene therapy to the adoption of Eastern practices like acupuncture.
Nuland also recounts his most dramatic experiences in a forty-year medical career: the time he was called out of the audience of a Broadway play to help a man having a heart attack (when no other doctor there would respond), and how he formed a profound friendship with an unforgettable–and doomed–heart patient. Behind these inspiring accounts always lie the mysteries of the human body and human nature, the manner in which the ill can will themselves back to health and the odd and essential interactions between a body’s own healing mechanisms and a doctor’s prescriptions.
Riveting and wise, amusing and heartrending, The Uncertain Art is Sherwin Nuland’s best work, gems from a man who has spent his professional life acting in the face of ambiguity and sharing what he has learned.
Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman)
by MD, Nortin M. Hadler
from The University of North Carolina Press
At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary.
Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment, such as mammography, colorectal screening, statin drugs, or coronary stents. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique.
According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.
Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer
by Tracy Kidder
from Random House
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the “master of the non-fiction narrative.” This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti—blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”: as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
“Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation,” says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, “[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.”
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer -- brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti -- blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" -- a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."
"In this excellent work, Pulitzer Prize-winner Kidder immerseshimself in and beautifully explores the rich drama that exists in thelife of Dr. Paul Farmer... Throughout, Kidder captures the almost saintlyeffect Farmer has on those whom he treats."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
"[A] Skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishinghuman being."
KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED REVIEW
"A fine writer and his extraordinary subject: Tracy Kidder, in givingus Paul Farmer, lifts up an image of hope -- and challenge -- that theworld urgently needs. Simply put, this is an important book."
JAMES CARROLL , AUTHOR OF CONSTANTINE'S SWORD
"The central character of this marvelous book is one of the mostprovocative, brilliant, funny, unsettling, endlessly energetic, irksome,and charming characters ever to spring to life on the page. He hasembarked on an epic struggle that will take you from the halls ofHarvard Medical School to a sun-scorched plateau in Haiti, from theslums of Peru to the cold gray prisons of Moscow. He wants to change theworld. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way yousee it."
JONATHAN HARR, AUTHOROF
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The Medical Interview: Mastering Skills for Clinical Practice (Medical Interview (Coulehan))
by John L., M.D. Coulehan
from F. A. Davis Company
This new edition of The Medical Interview: Mastering Skills for Clinical Practice, 5th Edition, will help your students learn the art of conducting a medical interview and in the process hone their communication skills. In addition, the authors have created a downloadable interview organizer that students can use as a management tool for their first interviews. The book is appropriate for medical students and all levels of residents and is truly a must-read for anyone conducting a clinician-patient interview.
Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care 2008 (Lange Medical Book)
by Ralph Gonzales
from McGraw-Hill Professional
Fundamentals of Clinical Practice: A Textbook on the Patient, Doctor, and Society
from Springer
Of all the skills first- and second-year medical students are expected to cultivate during their training, the one that may not receive the attention it deserves is how to establish effective physician-patient relationship. These techniques often lie outside the traditional diagnostic, treatment and technical realms but are invaluable to physicians, regardless of the specialty they practice. As it becomes more and more evident that good interactions with patients facilitate the healing process, physicians need a guide to developing these crucial bonds.
This updated text leads the physician-in-training through the world of patients' concerns, with three main sections: The Patient, The Doctor, and Society. The contributions, from nationally respected practitioners, delve into the many aspects of doctors' interactions with the world around them, and include discussions on:
-Becoming a physician, with attention paid to the effects of the demanding educational/training process of the individual student;
-Basic clinical skills such as interviewing, physical examination, laboratory testing, diagnosis, and accurate record keeping;
-New approaches to improve decision making, patient education and negotiation, chronic illness management, counseling for behavior change, and functional status assessment; and
-The cultural world of the patient, including the varied issues that make each patient a unique case.
Case studies are also included which vividly bring to life these concepts, and recommendations for further reading are offered. Fundamentals of Clinical Practice, Second Edition presents medical students with a comprehensive guide to the social ramifications of a physician's work, and more experienced practitioners with the tools to augment their own patient-centered techniques.
