“A powerful and extraordinarily important book.” —James P. Comer, MD “A marvelous personal journey that illuminates what it means to care for people of all races, religions, and cultures. The story of this man becomes the aspiration of all those who seek to minister not only to the body but also to the soul.” —Jerome Groopman, MD, author of How Doctors Think Growing up in Jim Crow–era Tennessee and training and teaching in overwhelmingly white medical institutions, Gus White witnessed firsthand how prejudice works in the world of medicine. While race relations have changed dramatically since then, old ways of thinking die hard. In this blend of memoir and manifesto, Dr. White draws on his experience as a resident at Stanford Medical School, a combat surgeon in Vietnam, and head orthopedic surgeon at one of Harvard’s top teaching hospitals to make sense of the unconscious bias that riddles medical care, and to explore how we can do better in a diverse twenty-first-century America. “Gus White is many things—trailblazing physician, gifted surgeon, and freedom fighter. Seeing Patients demonstrates to the world what many of us already knew—that he is also a compelling storyteller. This powerful memoir weaves personal experience and scientific research to reveal how the enduring legacy of social inequality shapes America’s medical field. For medical practitioners and patients alike, Dr. White offers both diagnosis and prescription.” —Jonathan L. Walton, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University “A tour de force—a compelling story about race, health, and conquering inequality in medical care...Dr. White has a uniquely perceptive lens with which to see and understand unconscious bias in health care...His journey is so absorbing that you will not be able to put this book down.” —Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., author of All Deliberate Speed

For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today. While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.

No other book on the subject Chronic diseases, especially those associated with poor nutrition, obesity, and addiction have grown to epidemic proportion in many poor and minority populations Covers all essential topics, including Navigating Language Barriers, Understanding Disability, Patient Education, Substance Abusers, the Care of Gay and Lesbian Patients, Reproductive Issues in Poor Women, and much more

A comprehensive, evidence-based introduction to the principles and practices of patient communication in a clinical setting Endorsed by the American Academy on Communication for Healthcare Updated and expanded by a multidisciplinary team of medical experts, Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing, Third Edition presents a step-by-step methodology for mastering every aspect of the medical interview. You will learn how to confidently obtain from patients accurate biomedical facts, as well as critical personal, social, and emotional information, allowing you to make precise diagnoses, develop effective treatment plans, and forge strong clinician-patient relationships. The most evidence-based guide available on this topic, Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing applies the proven 5-Step approach, which integrates patient- and clinician-centered skills to improve effectiveness without adding extra time to the interview’s duration. Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing covers everything from patient-centered and clinician-centered interviewing skills, such as: Patient education Motivating for behavior change Breaking bad news Managing different personality styles Increasing personal awareness in mindful practice Nonverbal communication Using computers in the exam room Reporting and presenting evaluations Companion video and teaching supplement are available online. Read details inside the book.

In the twelve years since the first edition of Talking With Patients was published, contributions from relational psychoanalysis and from neuroscience have been integrated into much of the work done by self psychologists. The relational focus on the impact of the treatment relationship on the psychoanalytic process, while implicit in self psychology, is made explicit in this new edition. Additionally, the concept of implicit memory, a contribution from neuroscience, has opened the door to new ways of understanding and dealing with patients who were severely abused as children. In the second edition of Talking with Patients, the author discuss how we are guided by non-verbal cues as much as by verbal ones, and continues to expand on the idea that therapists learn how to do therapy as much from their patients as from supervisors or theories.

Being a patient is a unique interpersonal experience but it is also a universal human experience. The relationships formed when we are patients can also teach some of life's most important lessons, and these relationships provide a special window into ethics, especially the ethics of healthcare professionals. This book answers two basic questions: As patients see it, what things allow relationships with healthcare providers to become therapeutic? What can this teach us about healthcare ethics? This volume presents detailed descriptions and analyses of 50 interviews with 58 patients, representing a wide spectrum of illnesses and clinician specialties. The authors argue that the structure, rhythm, and horizon of routine patient care are ultimately grounded in patient vulnerability and clinician responsiveness. From the short interview segments, the longer vignettes and the full patient stories presented here emerge the neglected dimensions of healthcare and healthcare ethics. What becomes visible is an ethics of everyday interdependence, with mutual responsibilities that follow from this moral symbiosis. Both professional expressions of healthcare ethics and the field of bioethics need to be informed and reformed by this distinctive, more patient-centered, turn in how we understand both patient care as a whole and the ethics of care more specifically. The final chapters present revised codes of ethics for health professionals, as well as the implications for medical and health professions education.

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.

Patients at Risk: The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Healthcare exposes a vast conspiracy of political maneuvering and corporate greed that has led to the replacement of qualified medical professionals by lesser trained practitioners. As corporations seek to save money and government agencies aim to increase constituent access, minimum qualifications for the guardians of our nation’s healthcare continue to decline—with deadly consequences. This is a story that has not yet been told, and one that has dangerous repercussions for all Americans. With the rate of nurse practitioner and physician assistant graduates exceeding that of physician graduates, if you are not already being treated by a non-physician, chances are, you soon will be. While advocates for these professions insist that research shows that they can provide the same care as physicians, patients do not know the whole truth: that there are no credible scientific studies to support the safety and efficacy of non-physicians practicing without physician supervision. Written by two physicians who have witnessed the decline of medical expertise over the last twenty years, this data-driven book interweaves heart-rending true patient stories with hard data, showing how patients have been sacrificed for profit by the substitution of non-physician practitioners. Adding a dimension neglected by modern healthcare critiques such as An American Sickness, this book provides a roadmap for patients to protect themselves from medical harm. WORDS OF PRAISE and REVIEWS Al-Agba and Bernard tell a frightening story that insiders know all too well. As mega corporations push for efficiency and tout consumer focused retail services, American healthcare is being dumbed down to the point of no return. It's a story that many media outlets are missing and one that puts you and your family's health at real risk. --John Irvine, Deductible Media Laced with actual patient cases, the book’s data and patterns of large corporations replacing physicians with non-physician practitioners, despite the vast difference in training is enlightening and astounding. The authors' extensively researched book methodically lays out the problems of our changing medical care landscape and solutions to ensure quality care. --Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD A masterful job of bringing to light a rapidly growing issue of what should be great concern to all of us: the proliferation of non-physician practitioners that work predominantly inside algorithms rather than applying years of training, clinical knowledge, and experience. Instead of a patient-first mentality, we are increasingly met with the sad statement of Profits Over Patients, echoed by hospitals and health insurance companies. --John M. Chamberlain, MHA, LFACHE, Board Chairman, Citizen Health A must read for patients attempting to navigate today’s healthcare marketplace. --Brian Wilhelmi MD, JD, FASA

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

Portraits of the thirty-eight known patients Sigmund Freud treated clinically—some well-known, many obscure—reveal a darker, more complex picture of the famed psychoanalyst. Everyone knows the characters described by Freud in his case histories: “Dora,” the “Rat Man,” the “Wolf Man.” But what do we know of the people, the lives behind these famous pseudonyms: Ida Bauer, Ernst Lanzer, Sergius Pankejeff? Do we know the circumstances that led them to Freud’s consulting room, or how they fared—how they really fared—following their treatments? And what of those patients about whom Freud wrote nothing, or very little: Pauline Silberstein, who threw herself from the fourth floor of her analyst’s building; Elfriede Hirschfeld, Freud’s “grand-patient” and “chief tormentor;” the fashionable architect Karl Mayreder; the psychotic millionaire Carl Liebmann; and so many others? In an absorbing sequence of portraits, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen offers the stories of these men and women—some comic, many tragic, all of them deeply moving. In total, thirty-eight lives tell us as much about Freud’s clinical practice as his celebrated case studies, revealing a darker and more complex Freud than is usually portrayed: the doctor as his patients, their friends, and their families saw him.