Eve Shapiro has been writing about patient-centered care, physician–patient communication, and relationships between doctors and their patients since 2007. In Joy in Medicine? What 100 Healthcare Professionals Have to Say about Job Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, Burnout, and Joy, Eve turns her attention to those on the healthcare delivery side of this "sacred interaction." These healthcare professionals share their enthusiasm, joys, frustrations, disappointments, insights, advice, stories, fears, and pain, explaining how it looks and feels to work in healthcare today no matter who you are, where you work, or what your position is in the organizational hierarchy. The healthcare professionals who provide patient care deserve our collective interest in their humanity. Without some insight into who they are and the forces with which they struggle every day, we cannot fully appreciate the obstacles to providing the care we all want for ourselves and our families during the best of times, let alone in the uncertain times that lie ahead.

Dr. Reza Manesh is a leading voice in medical education. But his journey wasn't easy. By learning and cultivating three important traits-humanism, humility, and hunger for growth-he has found joy in medicine.Through deeply personal stories from the front lines of medical training and practice, Reza shares how he developed a sense of purpose and found his passion in medicine.In this motivational memoir, Reza shares the wisdom he has gained from his teachers, his patients, and his beloved grandfather.

Some people suffer from chronic, debilitating disorders for which no conventional treatment brings relief. Can marijuana ease their symptoms? Would it be breaking the law to turn to marijuana as a medication? There are few sources of objective, scientifically sound advice for people in this situation. Most books about marijuana and medicine attempt to promote the views of advocates or opponents. To fill the gap between these extremes, authors Alison Mack and Janet Joy have extracted critical findings from a recent Institute of Medicine study on this important issue, interpreting them for a general audience. Marijuana As Medicine? provides patientsâ€"as well as the people who care for themâ€"with a foundation for making decisions about their own health care. This empowering volume examines several key points, including: Whether marijuana can relieve a variety of symptoms, including pain, muscle spasticity, nausea, and appetite loss. The dangers of smoking marijuana, as well as the effects of its active chemical components on the immune system and on psychological health. The potential use of marijuana-based medications on symptoms of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and several other specific disorders, in comparison with existing treatments. Marijuana As Medicine? introduces readers to the active compounds in marijuana. These include the principal ingredient in Marinol, a legal medication. The authors also discuss the prospects for developing other drugs derived from marijuana's active ingredients. In addition to providing an up-to-date review of the science behind the medical marijuana debate, Mack and Joy also answer common questions about the legal status of marijuana, explaining the conflict between state and federal law regarding its medical use. Intended primarily as an aid to patients and caregivers, this book objectively presents critical information so that it can be used to make responsible health care decisions. Marijuana As Medicine? will also be a valuable resource for policymakers, health care providers, patient counselors, medical faculty and studentsâ€"in short, anyone who wants to learn more about this important issue.

Recapturing Joy in Medicine by Amaryllis Sanchez Wohlever, MD, contains a powerful prescription for physicians today who are practicing medicine during a time of crisis in the healthcare industry; one that is fueling an epidemic of physician burnout. From dealing with poor electronic healthcare records systems and insurance company intrusions to inadequate staffing to loss of clinical autonomy, doctors are facing myriad obstacles to providing excellent, compassionate patient care. As a physician, a physician coach, author, and speaker, Dr. Sanchez Wohlever understands the lives of doctors firsthand and writes this coaching manual to help them find the joy they once found in caring for patients. Within, physicians find practical ways to practice self-care, ask for the help they need, and to place doctor-patient relationships back at the center of their practices. This book is a hopeful call to action for physicians to reclaim their passion for patient care.

Medical practice is undergoing the most radical changes seen in decades. Novel reimbursement models, impersonalization caused by technology, and increasing demands on providers' limited time are causing unhappiness among practitioners and patients alike. Yet, the patient experience and patient satisfaction are more important than ever. Patient experience affects patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction scores will affect how much physicians and other health care providers get paid. In The Performance of Medicine, Dr. Bob Baker offers practical strategies and techniques that physicians and other practitioners can implement easily and immediately to give patients the best possible experience with no additional expenditure of time. An internist/gastroenterologist with 35 years of private practice experience, and a professional magician/ventriloquist with 50 years of live performance experience, Dr. Baker seamlessly weaves the techniques he used to garner top reviews from his patients

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated burnout for clinicians and administrators alike, heightening the need for this practical guide that provides a comprehensive approach to empowering physicians while ensuring organizational resilience. In this second edition of Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine, doctors Paul DeChant and Diane Shannon define burnout, explore the consequences for physicians, patients, and the health care system, identify the underlying causes that are fueling the burnout epidemic, and provide case studies with specific interventions that have demonstrated success in healing the broken clinical workplace.Based on their experience and extensive interviews with experts in burnout, health care, and Lean management, they give voice to patient advocates, burnout researchers, leaders of health care organizations, and the physicians themselves. DeChant and Shannon also share examples of strategies that hospitals and physician practices across the United States are using to address the root causes of burnout among physicians, including action items for preventing burnout and curbing the crisis."It is hard to see how we can create the health care system we want and need on the backs of joyless and unengaged doctors. This well-written, practical book offers the prescription we need to address this crisis." Robert Wachter, MD, author of The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age

“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician” that explores the doctor-patient relationship, the flaws in our health care system, and how doctors’ emotions impact medical care (Boston Globe) While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. Physicians are assumed to be objective, rational beings, easily able to detach as they guide patients and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. But understanding doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice can make all the difference on giving and getting the best medical care. Digging deep into the lives of doctors, Dr. Danielle Ofri examines the daunting range of emotions—shame, anger, empathy, frustration, hope, pride, occasionally despair, and sometimes even love—that permeate the contemporary doctor-patient connection. Drawing on scientific studies, including some surprising research, Dr. Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care. Dr. Ofri takes us into the swirling heart of patient care, telling stories of caregivers caught up and occasionally torn down by the whirlwind life of doctoring. She admits to the humiliation of an error that nearly killed one of her patients. She mourns when a beloved patient is denied a heart transplant. She tells the riveting stories of an intern traumatized when she is forced to let a newborn die in her arms, and of a doctor whose daily glass of wine to handle the frustrations of the ER escalates into a destructive addiction. Ofri also reveals that doctors cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness.

The medical use of marijuana is surrounded by a cloud of social, political, and religious controversy, which obscures the facts that should be considered in the debate. This book summarizes what we know about marijuana from evidence-based medicineâ€"the harm it may do and the relief it may bring to patients. The book helps the reader understand not only what science has to say about medical marijuana but also the logic behind the scientific conclusions. Marijuana and Medicine addresses the science base and the therapeutic effects of marijuana use for medical conditions such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. It covers marijuana's mechanism of action, acute and chronic effects on health and behavior, potential adverse effects, efficacy of different delivery systems, analysis of the data about marijuana as a gateway drug, and the prospects for developing cannabinoid drugs. The book evaluates how well marijuana meets accepted standards for medicine and considers the conclusions of other blue-ribbon panels. Full of useful facts, this volume will be important to anyone interested in informed debate about the medical use of marijuana: advocates and opponents as well as policymakers, regulators, and health care providers.

The inspiring and hilarious story of Patch Adams's quest to bring free health care to the world and to transform the way doctors practice medicine • Tells the story of Patch Adam's lifetime quest to transform the health care system • Released as a film from Universal Pictures, starring Robin Williams Meet Patch Adams, M.D., a social revolutionary who has devoted his career to giving away health care. Adams is the founder of the Gesundheit Institute, a home-based medical practice that has treated more than 15,000 people for free, and that is now building a full-scale hospital that will be open to anyone in the world free of charge. Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? Not for those who know and work with Patch. Whether it means putting on a red clown nose for sick children or taking a disturbed patient outside to roll down a hill with him, Adams does whatever is necessary to help heal. In his frequent lectures at medical schools and international conferences, Adams's irrepressible energy cuts through the businesslike facade of the medical industry to address the caring relationship between doctor and patient that is at the heart of true medicine. All author royalties are used to fund The Gesundheit Institute, a 40-bed free hospital in West Virginia. Adams's positive vision and plan for the future is an inspiration for those concerned with the inaccessibility of affordable, quality health care. Today's high-tech medicine has become too costly, impersonal, and grim. In his frequent lectures to colleges, churches, community groups, medical schools, and conferences, Patch shows how healing can be a loving, creative, humorous human exchange--not a business transaction.

In this updated and expanded edition of her alternative-health classic, Eden shows readers how they can understand their body's energy systems to promote healing.