You: The Smart Patient: An Insider's Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment

by Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. Roizen

Book Overview

America's doctors, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, show you how to become your own medical detective and get the best health care possible.

Everyone needs to become a smart patient. In fact, in the worst cases, your life may even depend on it. Number one bestselling authors and doctors Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz have written this indispensable handbook to help everyone to get the best health care possible--by making everyone into their...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743293010
• ISBN13: 9780743293013
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Medical Mistakes - Stopping Them Is Up To Us

Medical mistakes are a disaster. And we're not just talking about sensational boo boos like amputating the wrong leg or pumping an allergic patient full of penicillin. It's all the little errors that accumulate in a person's medical life that these two popular health authors are out to correct. It's up to each individual to take charge of the quality and scope of their own health and healthcare. They need to become "The Smart Patient." Poor communication between patient and doctor, incomplete or inaccurate health histories, small mistakes that get propagated through our health records, and incomplete understanding of the surgical or pharmaceutical options available to each of us, these are error and omissions that can, and occasionally do kill. As a fellow physician, I have seen all too often, how a misspoken or misspelled word has been allowed to misguide doctors and misdirect treatment. In my opinion, You The Smart Patient is a terrific roadmap for the average, healthy patient wanting to scour their health record clean of misleading errors, to flesh it out with useful personal information and to prevent new inaccuracies from contaminating it in the future. The writing style, as in all the "YOU" books, mixes health information with a lot of chatty humor and busy cartoons. making for a stimulus-rich book reading experience. For the reader who can take it in as fast as they can deliver it, this can be a bit distracting. But the information is all there. This is a comprehensive treatment of the subject, outlining what you must do to interact safely with our imperfect healthcare system. We all know it pays to be a savvy consumer and that ignorance is costly. But nowhere is the cost of consumer ignorance higher than in medicine. Empowering the patient is a dominant message in many of the most popular health books. You The Smart Patient is a one of your best roadmaps to that empowerment. - John Corso, MD author of: Stupid Reasons People Die, An Ingenious Plot for Defusing Deadly Diseases

Invaluable

My mother picked up this book at an airport shortly before she was scheduled to have surgery, and we are very glad she did! This book was an invaluable resource for her to calm som eof her fears, and for the rest of our family, so that we could learn to be better advocates for my mother while she was in hospital. This was not her first surgery, and all of us work in health care and there were still things we learned. Yes, as some reviewers have stated the style may seem very simplistic, but that make it even easier to digest. Also, many reviewers have stated that it covers common sense things that everyone should know. That is true, however, those common sense things are often the most overlooked. Patients rarely think to ask those caring for them if they have washed their hand, because they assume they did. This book encourages you to assume nothing, and always double check. I recommend this to anyone who is either preparing for surgery, as well as their family members.

Great reference on medical care

The advice in this book has been invaluable. Covers being a smart, informed patient in doctor's office or hospital; how to choose a doctor, hospital, ER, etc.; checklists to cover with doctors; valid patient concerns about hospital care and cleanliness; and where to complain if the need arises. Though I first bought the book as a future reference, I soon had real-life use of it with two unexpected hospitalizations and an unusual medical condition on which several specialists had somewhat different opinions. This guide helped me become informed enough to understand and navigate treatment alternatives primarily by asking the right questions (which the book provides in checklists). I'd typically ask the checklist questions after the doctor's advice during a visit, and it's amazing what would not have been told to me had I not done this. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to be well informed and in control of his/her healthcare.

Must have for everyone

I picked this book up because I'm going to see a new doctor. I found a whole list of things I should take with me, ask and be prepared for. Having read it, and knowing my own experiences, this is a book that should be read by everyone who's concerned about their health and the care they're receiving. Buy it now, tab it, underline it and share it with friends.

Loved It! as expected

I bought this book because of how much I enjoyed and learned from their previous book, YOU: The Owner's Manual. As expected it was full of extremely useful information that I wasn't aware of and I already feel empowered to be a smarter patient. Also it was written in the laid back, easy to read way the previous book was making it much more understandable that the regular doctor jargon. Both my parents tend to not want to hear about their health issues. They have the "head in the sand" mentality which is very frustrating. I bought the book for both of them in hopes that it might turn their thinking around and enable them to be more proactive about their health. I thank the authors for this book. I recommend it to every one of all ages. We are in an age where everyone is more empowered and wanting to be in control of their own lives and futures, so why not be involved in a movement to take charge of your own health?