Customer Reviews

Every Patient Tells a Story

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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.

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.

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.

First of all, let me state that I love medical literature and find it quite readable and fascinating. Dr. Lisa Sanders has impressive credentials and is a consultant for the television medical drama "House". Therefore, I was excited to learn from this book but after the first few chapters I felt considerably deflated as my expectations met reality. It appears to have been conceived in a stop-start fashion, without a cohesive, readable narrative or comprehensive organization strategies. It feels as if it were created on a few red-eye flights from L.A. to New York City with a laptop, generous use of existing historical texts (which are cited) and notes from medical conventions and colleagues. The book lacks readability because of its disjointed format and the inability to decide what it is and how the distinct elements can be combined logically: medical case studies, history of medicine, examining cognition of physicians be it training or practice-based. Four elements are at work: 1) doctor/patient stories 2) details of past and current medical diagnostic training 3) concepts and theories of actively practicing physicians 4) diagnostic tales gleaned from medical conferences, personal experience, and journals. With this plethora of information, it is up to the author to craft a story of diagnostic challenges. However, Dr. Sanders is not up to the task and we are left with a sea of facts, little humanity, and a derivative tone that falls severely short of its potential. A bizarre unraveling at the end of the book include a chapter-long rant against chronic Lyme disease and an oddly impersonal tale of her alcoholic sister's death. This type of work has been done before, and it has been done beautifully. Unfortunately, this book does not know which story it is trying to tell, and the reader is left with very little that is memorable or substantive.

As a creative thinker and alternative healer myself, I really appreciate the author's emphasis on the creative thought process; the ability to bring together seemingly disparate pieces of the puzzle, to create a cohesive whole. I have also worked within the mental health system, and realize the type of training and constraints that are put upon doctors, and educated people of all disciplines. I have also had the "Mystery Diagnosis" syndrome myself with Celiac; thankfully, not a deadly disease, easily treated with diet, but still, the root cause of a whole cascade of symptoms that were not tied together by doctors, but left to my own intuition and healing abilities to uncover and treat. This would be a very worthy book for med students; I am glad to read here that the medical schools are encouraging a more humanistic and holistic approach, and I am glad to know that the author is a part of that. Thanks for a thought provoking book, which is both disheartening at the way things have been and still are in the medical system, and hopeful towards the future!

After years of asking myself, "Why?" I was finally able to put the pieces of our family medical history together using Google and found a rare connective tissue disorder, Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome to be the answer. Books like this one help bring to light experiences such as my own and prove to be an interesting read. The journey of the patient is often a complicated one as the process of obtaining a diagnosis is not as simple as one would like to believe.

Every Patient Tells a Story should appeal to fans of the show, House, M.D. and fans of Atul Gawande's books as well. I would hope this book has a wonderful appeal to physicians but what a beautiful gift to those like myself who have lived stories similar to those in the book.

Filled with fascinating details, a vast number of diseases, and interesting stories. The author even examines the sudden and other wise unexplained death of her own sister.

Highly recommended for anyone up for a little medical trivia.

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.

As a medical educator I was deeply affected by "Every patient" since Dr. Sanders has pinpointed one of the most troublesome aspects of medicine and medical education today. The loss of physical examination skills and the corresponding loss of deductive thinking ability is a problem for doctors and their patients. She highlights her points with excellent and engaging case histories and reveals the difficulties in diagnosis that comes with unusual cases.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Dr. Sanders for her New York Times Diagnosis column. During the course of the interview she was steadfast in having my husband and me tell her our "story" of his medical mystery and how the diagnosis was discovered after twenty years of frightening symptoms.

This book is an important book that should be read by practicing physicians. Dr. Sanders, through case studies, explores the idea that every patient has a story to tell and if a physician is truly listening, the diagnosis will uncover itself.

Her book and Dr. Jerome Groopman's book, How Doctors Think should be on every physician's MUST READ list. Without a doubt these books explore the communication process that is necessary when practicing medicine.

I loved reading Dr. Sander's book. She writes with great compassion and discloses to her readers her own family's medical mystery that doesn't have a happy ending. I appreciate her candor in disclosing her family's heartache. I hope it will help other families have a happier ending.

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.