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Product Description:
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.
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Average Rating : 
Rating :  - Insightful book to this science researcher -- IF you skip chapter 5
I accidentally stumbled upon Jerome Groopman's book, and picked it up figuring it might be worth reading. As a science researcher who's considered attending medical school, Dr. Groopman's book was insightful in confronting the many problems affecting physicians and medical schools today. After several chapters of meaningful stories, I came to chapter 5, `A New Mother's Challenge". I wish I had skipped this chapter.
Groopman begins by explaining the story of a woman, Rachel, who adopts a baby from Vietnam. This child is found with a severe immunodeficiency of unknown causes. Throughout the chapter, Groopman explains how Rachel, (whom we later find he met in their local synagogue), falls back on God and her faith throughout her new baby's ordeal. We later find Rachel thanking God for saving her child's life on September 11, 2001.
Of course, this was the same day some of God's most faithful flew two planes into the World Trade Center in His name, killing thousands of innocent people. Yet amazingly as a clinician and scientist, Groopman seems to continue to preach faith at the end of the chapter, failing to recognize that what saved this baby's life is the rational human mind (even if it is fallible at times) . The research scientists who studied science for years to develop laboratory tests to diagnose the illness, the physicians and nurses who applied medical science knowledge in their care of the baby, and ironically the mother Rachel, all guided the doctors to the right diagnostic answer to save her baby's life. YET it is this unknowable metaphysical `God' who gets thanked time and again for her baby's survival?? Besides this unfortunate, and unnecessary, preaching that undermines the flow of the book, Dr. Groopman's tales are of great value in learning the difficult decisions and potential cognitive errors medical doctors can face everyday. It arms the lay reader with great insights into practical ways to discuss a loved one's health and one's own health with their physicians.
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