Get Inside Your Doctor's Head: Ten Commonsense Rules for Making Better Decisions about Medical Care (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)
Phillip K. Peterson
Language: English
Pages: 68
ISBN: 1421410699
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
With so many medical tests and treatments and so much scientific and medical information—some of it contradictory—how can people make the best medical decisions?
Most medical decisions, it turns out, are based on common sense. In this short and easy-to-read book, Dr. Phillip K. Peterson explains the ten rules of internal medicine. Using real case examples he shows how following the rules will help consumers make good decisions about their medical care.
Get Inside Your Doctor’s Head provides advice about such questions as when to seek treatment, when to get another opinion, and when to let time take its course. Turn to the Ten Rules when you are weighing your doctor’s recommendations about diagnostic tests and treatments and use them to communicate more effectively with your doctor. As with all rules, the Ten Rules of Internal Medicine have occasional exceptions—and when evidence suggests that you are an exception, the relevant rule should be broken. Follow the Ten Rules to make decisions in the increasingly complicated medical world when you need guidance about health matters for yourself and your loved ones.
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scan. Step one should be taking a thorough medical history and doing a physical exam. And remember: if you don’t agree with your doctor’s advice, ask for a second medical opinion. Or do as my wife did on her own: find another doctor. Rule 8 What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You Judging by the many family members and friends who visited the hospital when Pamela Ferguson died, she was greatly loved. Her death came as a shock to everyone. She was only 38 years old. Except for
His admitting doctor ordered a CT scan of his lower back. Paul’s doctors were worried that his ongoing back pain could be due to an abscess, his cancer, or a herniated spinal disk. However, the CT scan result was normal. Paul had been given morphine since he first arrived at the hospital, but it didn’t completely relieve his pain. Nonetheless, he wanted to go home, where he could continue taking a strong painkiller and complete a course of antibiotics. Because he no longer had a fever and his
helped to improve medical science, advance the art of medicine, and improve doctors’ caring for patients. Recap The Rules Revisited I don’t expect you to remember all ten of the Rules. But when you are making a medical decision for yourself or someone you care about, the list below may be useful as a quick reminder. This list will help you choose the Rule or Rules you need in a specific situation and provide a recap of the key thinking behind each Rule. The Ten Rules of Internal
One of most disconcerting questions raised by the H1N1 influenza pandemic is this: how and why did this novel strain of influenza emerge so unexpectedly? At the time H1N1 appeared, public health experts were worried mainly about another influenza virus—H5N1 or “bird flu.” Emerging Infections * * * Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Niels Bohr, physicist * * * At about the time I began my infectious diseases training, in 1975, the surgeon general of the
Because Ted was no longer taking the drug, he became vulnerable to this infection. Sulfisoxazole worked beautifully, and there was very good reason for Ted to keep taking it. He didn’t, and he paid the price of not following Rule 2: If what you’re doing seems to be working, think about continuing it. I prescribed a high dose of sulfisoxazole, and after Ted had spent a week in the hospital, his cough and fever subsided. I assured him and his wife that he was likely to recover completely but