Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis

by Lisa Sanders

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767922476
• ISBN13: 9780767922470
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Good But Disappointing

This book is interesting but disappointed me. It is heavily focused on the "art of diagnosis" with medical mystery sprinkled in throughout. She jumps back and forth in a confusing manner and overexplains her point. There were some great facts to learn but I don't think it was communicated well. Overall, it was monotonous and painful to read toward the end.

These are things I want my family to understand

This is an amazing book. Maybe because the author was a little older and already skilled in communication when she went to medical school, she is able to articulate the experience in a unique way. I would recommend this book to anyone considering a medical career, families of medical professionals, patients, I guess that just about covers us all. I am a primary care physician and am excited about this entertaining opportunity for my family to understand what it is that doctors do.

Worth reading by MDs and lay persons

OK, I'm a sucker for those medical-detective TV shows. Unfortunately, most of them are aimed at about a fourth-grade level. Sanders' book certainly isn't: the medical mysteries here are not only interesting curiosities in themselves, but are part of a theme, examining the shortcomings of medical training (in particular, the decline of the physical exam). This book could profitably be read by doctors as well as (potential) patients. In fact, it's the sort of book you hope your doctor has read! Sanders isn't afraid to wade into controversial waters: as a hiker, I found her analysis of the so-called chronic Lyme disease fascinating and to the point (I would have enjoyed a similar analysis of MCS). After reading it, I had the feeling of not only having enjoyed the solution of some fascinating mysteries, but of getting an insight into the current state of medicine in this country.

Fantastic

There are books where, from the first page, you just know you are going to like it. This is one of them. As a huge fan of the tv show House, I was excited to read a book by the author, who is a technical advisor to the show. She provides a mix of stories of the type portrayed in the show.. medical mysteries. But, unlike the fictional version, she discusses the science behind the diagnoses, and what goes wrong. So this book is in part a book about medical diagnosis, discussing various techniques that are used, and in part it is very much a critique of medical diagnosis, describing the loss of valuable tools with the current deemphasis on hands on examinations. She includes stories of triumphs, but more importantly, shows how many diagnoses went wrong, and suggests improvements. Thus, this book is both about medical diagnoses, but it also raises important questions about medical practices that are of interest generally, but i believe would be of interest to and resonate with doctors as well. The book is very well written. It is clear, concise, and personal. It also gives a nice depth for how I will look at House when the new season begins. (Perhaps with more medicine and less drama, I hope). My biggest complaint about the book? Sequel isn't ready yet. Finished it in a day, and would like to read more. Altogether, a great read. Get it.

A thrilling inside tour of medicine that non-M.D.s will love,too

Every patient would love a look inside her physician's head to glimpse that meticulous moment-to-moment process that yields a great--even life-saving--diagnosis. That's exactly what EVERY PATIENT TELLS A STORY does. Bless Dr. Sanders for having the heart, wisdom and eloquence to lay open the M.D. brain for all of us nervous lay people who, at those moments of health crisis, can only pray we've picked a good doc. It turns out that the things we patients secretly crave from our doctors--eye contact, focused conversation, LISTENING, the reassuring touch of the physician's educated hands on our painful abdomens or dislocated shoulders--are also the most vital tools of a truly great diagnostician. Of course we're grateful for medical technology, but as Dr. Sanders so brilliantly argues, these technical advancements work best when physicians' own powers of observation--and yes, intuition--are also fully engaged. The last chapter is a dramatic departure from the rest of the book. Here Dr. Sanders tells us a very personal diagnosis story, one involving the untimely death of her younger sister. The gift of such an intimate conclusion reminds the reader of the humane impulse that so clearly motivated its author on every preceding page.

compelling and yet worrisome story about medicine

From the blurbs on the book I expected this to be for Internal Medicine what the series of books by the late Dr. Harold Klawans was for Neurology, a set of stories about clinical puzzles and their resolution. The publisher sells this book short, because while these vignettes are present (albeit in briefer form than in Klawans books), there is so much more! This book is really a grand tour of the role of the physical exam in medicine, through all its stages. You'll learn how doctors are taught the process, its declining role in current practice as hi-tech tests replace doctors looking, listening, and touching. You'll find out why tests can't completely replace a skilled doctor conducting a careful exam, the pressures on doctors to skimp or omit the exam, even the role technology can play in helping doctors evaluate alternative approaches. All accompanied by illustrative stories to pique your interest. This book may be a disappointment to those led by the title and blurbs on the covers to expect a book just about diagnostic stories, something akin to a compendium of the monthly "Vital Signs" column in Discover magazine. For those concerned about health care issues, though, it provides a thorough background into an area of medicine and insight into the debate over the growing use of expensive tests. The worrisome aspect of this book comes because once you understand the importance of a careful exam, you realize that not only is it being abandoned wholesale by the profession even when it should be retained, you have no way to know whether your doctor is any good at it. One positive sign related in this book is the renewed interest among medical faculty of the importance of careful physical exams. Doctors must now show proficiency in order to be licensed. Even practicing doctors are seeking out additional training, as Dr. Sanders does when she attends a class on heart sounds. Even this seems incomplete to me; after the training the doctors test much better than before, but do they keep that improvement 6 months or 6 years later? I wonder why they don't leave the class with a program that has hundreds of versions of the sounds they've learned on it so that they can test/refresh their skill once a month or so. The last takeaway from this book, and it's useful reminder, is that medicine is an art. Not only are doctors imperfect, so is knowledge and diagnosis of disease. People get things, debilitating things, and nobody can figure out what they have. This book serves to point out that a skilled doctor taking a careful look may be able to solve some of the mysteries.