Most Americans assume that universal access to health care is a desirable and humane political goal. Not so, says distinguished legal scholar Richard Epstein. In this seminal work, he explodes the unspoken assumption that a government-administered, universal health-care system would be a boon to America. Basing his argument in our common law traditions that limit the collective responsibility for an individual's welfare, he provides a political and economic analysis which suggests that unregulated provision of health care will, in the long run, guarantee greater access to quality medical care for more people. He also authoritatively documents the ways in which government regulation has actually reduced the availability of organs for vitally needed transplants, and has interfered with a sensible policy toward euthanasia.

Can refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients lead to better health? Despite modern medicine’s infatuation with high-tech gadgetry, the single most powerful diagnostic tool is the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. However, what patients say and what doctors hear are often two vastly different things. Patients, anxious to convey their symptoms, feel an urgency to “make their case” to their doctors. Doctors, under pressure to be efficient, multitask while patients speak and often miss the key elements. Add in stereotypes, unconscious bias, conflicting agendas, and fear of lawsuits and the risk of misdiagnosis and medical errors multiplies dangerously. Though the gulf between what patients say and what doctors hear is often wide, Dr. Danielle Ofri proves that it doesn’t have to be. Through the powerfully resonant human stories that Dr. Ofri’s writing is renowned for, she explores the high-stakes world of doctor-patient communication that we all must navigate. Reporting on the latest research studies and interviewing scholars, doctors, and patients, Dr. Ofri reveals how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

A cat café Murder Who is the killer? Lauren Crenshaw and her Norwegian Forest Cat Annie run their own certified cat café in the picturesque small town of Gold Leaf Valley, Northern California. Lauren’s fun cousin Zoe helps out as well. Lauren, Annie, and Zoe are shocked when one of their favorite customers is poisoned. Steve came into the café nearly every day – but who wanted him dead? The trio find themselves suspecting their customers – even elderly Mrs. Finch, whom Lauren thinks of as a substitute grandmother, doesn’t escape their scrutiny. The new (and attractive!) police detective warns them off the case. But Annie, the Norwegian Forest Cat, seems to have a nose for sniffing out trouble. Can Lauren, Annie, and Zoe catch the killer before the killer catches them? This is a humorous, clean, cat cozy mystery with female amateur sleuths – and a gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat! Metadata: food bake cook coffee cozy, amateur sleuth, women sleuths, humorous mystery, small town mystery, cafe cozy mystery, coffee shop cozy mystery, cozy mystery with romance

Falling Into the Fire is psychiatrist Christine Montross’s thoughtful investigation of the gripping patient encounters that have challenged and deepened her practice. The majority of the patients Montross treats in Falling Into the Fire are seen in the locked inpatient wards of a psychiatric hospital; all are in moments of profound crisis. We meet a young woman who habitually commits self-injury, having ingested light bulbs, a box of nails, and a steak knife, among other objects. Her repeated visits to the hospital incite the frustration of the staff, leading Montross to examine how emotion can interfere with proper care. A recent college graduate, dressed in a tunic and declaring that love emanates from everything around him, is brought to the ER by his concerned girlfriend. Is it ecstasy or psychosis? What legal ability do doctors have to hospitalize—and sometimes medicate—a patient against his will? A new mother is admitted with incessant visions of harming her child. Is she psychotic and a danger or does she suffer from obsessive thoughts? Her course of treatment—and her child’s future—depends upon whether she receives the correct diagnosis. Each case study presents its own line of inquiry, leading Montross to seek relevant psychiatric knowledge from diverse sources. A doctor of uncommon curiosity and compassion, Montross discovers lessons in medieval dancing plagues, in leading forensic and neurological research, and in moments from her own life. Beautifully written, deeply felt, Falling Into the Fire brings us inside the doctor’s mind, illuminating the grave human costs of mental illness as well as the challenges of diagnosis and treatment. Throughout, Montross confronts the larger question of psychiatry: What is to be done when a patient’s experiences cannot be accounted for, or helped, by what contemporary medicine knows about the brain? When all else fails, Montross finds, what remains is the capacity to abide, to sit with the desperate in their darkest moments. At once rigorous and meditative, Falling Into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry, allowing the reader to witness the humanity of the practice and the enduring mysteries of the mind

The NHS is in crisis - it's in record demand, and care services are at breaking point - but what if the solution to rescuing the NHS is in the hands of the patients themselves? In this refreshingly positive and remarkable book, David Gilbert shares the powerful real-life stories of 'patient leaders' - ordinary people affected by life-changing illnesses, disabilities, or conditions, who have all gone back into the fray to help change the healthcare system in necessary and inspiring ways. Charting their diverse journeys - from managing to live with their condition, and their motivation to change the status quo, right through to their successes in improving approaches to health and social care - these moving and courageous stories aim to motivate others to take back control and showcase the pivotal importance of patients as genuine decision-making leaders. Filled with hard-won wisdom and everyday heroism, The Patient Revolution challenges current discourse and sets out an empowering vision of how patient leaders can change the future of healthcare.

A brutally frank memoir about doctors and patients in a health care system that puts the poor at risk. No Apparent Distress begins with a mistake made by a white medical student that may have hastened the death of a working-class black man who sought care in a student-run clinic. Haunted by this error, the author—herself from a working-class background—delves into the stories and politics of a medical training system in which students learn on the bodies of the poor. Part confession, part family history, No Apparent Distress is at once an indictment of American health care and a deeply moving tale of one doctor’s coming-of-age.

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. "The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected. When I see patients in the hospital or in my office who are suddenly, surprisingly ill, what they really want to know is, ‘What is wrong with me?’ They want a road map that will help them manage their new surroundings. The ability to give this unnerving and unfamiliar place a name, to know it—on some level—restores a measure of control, independent of whether or not that diagnosis comes attached to a cure. Because, even today, a diagnosis is frequently all a good doctor has to offer." A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory—making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment—only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU—bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent—and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis. Never in human history have doctors had the knowledge, the tools, and the skills that they have today to diagnose illness and disease. And yet mistakes are made, diagnoses missed, symptoms or tests misunderstood. In this high-tech world of modern medicine, Sanders shows us that knowledge, while essential, is not sufficient to unravel the complexities of illness. She presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness—the diagnosis—revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying. Through dramatic stories of patients with baffling symptoms, Sanders portrays the absolute necessity and surprising difficulties of getting the patient’s story, the challenges of the physical exam, the pitfalls of doctor-to-doctor communication, the vagaries of tests, and the near calamity of diagnostic errors. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Sanders chronicles the real-life drama of doctors solving these difficult medical mysteries that not only illustrate the art and science of diagnosis, but often save the patients’ lives.

In Why Patients Sue Doctors 2e the authors draw on their wide-ranging, collective experience in over 1000 real-life medicolegal cases to explore why and how doctors make mistakes. By analysing and discussing the situations and behaviours that lead to complaints by patients and their families, this book provides clear and practical direction for practitioners to improve clinical care and avoid litigation. Written in a concise and engaging narrative writing style by editors Duncan Graham, Bernard Kelly and David Richards, readers will obtain a broad understanding of the origins, workings and outcomes of medicolegal cases and will be equipped with practical strategies to improve clinical care and avoid common pitfalls in practice. The text also introduces important legal concepts in an approachable manner appropriate for those working in medicine. - Detailed examination of real-life medicolegal cases to facilitate understanding and application to clinical practice - Logical and consistent organisation of cases in regional order of medical complaint, from head to toe - Practical advice on how to improve clinical care and avoid litigation - Easy-to-read and engaging narrative style of writing effectively communicates key takeaways for readers - Suitable introduction to legal concepts for medical students and professionals - Respected author team experienced in medicolegal and medical malpractice cases - Enhanced eBook version included with purchase

Kinsey Millhone trusts her life to her instincts as her investigation into the disappearance of a renowned physician takes her into a dark and dangerous world of duplicity, betrayal, and double-dealing, in the noir-influenced novel by the author of fifteen mysteries spanning the first two-thirds of the alphabet. 750,000 first printing.

"Our fascination with the topic of contextualizing care began about twenty years ago when the evidence-based medicine movement had taken hold. We noticed that although medical residents were skilled at identifying the latest studies and guidelines, their care plans often didn't seem appropriate once one considered the life challenges some of their patients were facing. We'd see, for instance, a patient with poorly controlled asthma put on a higher dose of a medication they weren't taking, rather than a cheaper generic, when the context was that they couldn't afford it. We coined the terms "contextual error" to describe these kinds of mistakes and "contextualized care" when patients' care plans are adapted to their life circumstances"--