Making Informed Medical Decisions: Where to Look and How to Use What You Find
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In the world of modern medicine, a lot of us feel as if we're on our own when it comes to making decisions about our health. Sometimes the problems that arise are a slam-dunk--the symptoms are clear-cut, the treatment is standard, the results are immediate. But often we're faced with problems our doctor hasn't seen before, or that are more annoying than life-threatening, and we have to do our own research and draw our own conclusions.
Nancy Oster (a medical writer), Lucy Thomas (a medical librarian), and Dr. Darol Joseff (a physician) teach an adult-education course on finding health-related information on the Internet, and this book arose from their students' requests for more in-depth techniques and strategies to uncloak their own medical mysteries.
The authors recommend that the search for a medical solution begin and end with a doctor--someone who can offer a diagnosis, and then help you sort out the information you find on your own. What happens in between is in play. Nowadays it seems a foregone conclusion that you'll head to the Internet for information. "The Internet, however, has no central catalog and no review or oversight process to control the quality of information you'll find," the authors note. In other words, it's a short hop from legitimate medical information to "aspartame causes brain tumors," with no referee to tell you when you've hopped out of bounds.
Although the tips on searching the Internet and medical libraries are the highlights of Making Informed Medical Decisions, the authors also include vital information regarding your rights as a patient, interpreting health statistics, and seeking alternative therapies. Those who have been recently diagnosed with a chronic or life-altering medical condition would seem to be the most natural audience for this book, but many families will also want to keep it nearby--and then hope they never need to use it. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
It's no secret that millions of us are more involved in our own health care decisions--whether we want to be or not. We may be looking for the latest advance that might give us an edge in survival; looking for complementary treatments to help a chronic condition; investigating whether a treatment recommendation is good medicine or cost-cutting; studying to understand what the doctor told us in our allotted ten- minute visit; or trying to understand if a media story or pharmaceutical ad applies to our situation. However, we're starting our search without much context of what we're looking for or understanding of how we might make best use of the array of resources. Making Informed Medical Decisions illuminates the process. Its subject matter includes:
Making Informed Medical Decisions: Where to Look and How to Use What You Find,Nancy Oster,Lucy Thomas,Darol Joseff,Susan Love,Patient Center Guides,1565924592,Alternative Medicine,Consumer Guides To Health Care,Consumer Health,Decision making,Family & Relationships,Family/Marriage,General,Health,Health Care Issues,Health/Fitness,Medicine,Physician services utilization,Popular works,Consumer education,Family & Relationships/General,Health & Fitness / Health Care Issues,Health systems & services,Industrial or vocational training,Medical/Alternative Medicine
Book Contents:
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