Another Book Mention

Thanks to my agent, Janet Reid, for directing me to set up Google Alerts for all mentions of my name and book on the internet, which is how this little item came to my attention. In response to this well-commented-upon post about why the Doctor-Patient relationship cannot be 50-50 comes this, from The Patient Report:

On this website, TPR, we write a lot about the doctor-patient partnership. It is our goal to be clear that it is not possible for it to be a 50-50 partnership because one of the partners has been to medical school and the other has not—-and may feel rotten, besides.

That said, it still is a partnership, each doing the best he or she can. Let’s also remember that it often is the patient who gives the doctor the diagnosis, although not in Latin. Repeated takings of the history of the problem may enable the patient to refine a pattern or spot a symptom which, at the time, meant nothing. So, patients are no slouches in helping out in the diagnostic department—-they just may be not be expected to.

Many doctors have argued that “informed consent” is an ideal, not a reality.

This marvelous woman is making the same point but more bluntly.

Don’t give up on your partnership with your doctors no matter what she says.

But also know that she is right about who actually must make most of the decisions.

Thanks to Cheree Cleghorn for the kind words.