Customer Reviews

Patient Self-help Guide: How to Talk to Your Doctor

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After an extensive search and at least six purchases, I found this new book, Patient Self-Help Guide: How to Talk to Your Doctor and it is a complete resource for any one who sees a doctor for any reason and I think that is probably everyone.

It's easy to read and understand. Not only have I discovered that there is an easy way to talk with AND understand my doctor, but the list of patient resources and medical terms directory make it so easy to find additional information of all types. You can find literally any information you may need to find about diseases, medical terms and all types of assistance sites either through this book or through the resources listed in the book. I love the record-keeping forms in the book!

I highly recommend the Patient Self-Help Guide for use by all types of patients of all ages and especially the elderly. The next gift my parents receive from me will definitely be this book.

Patient Self-Help Guide: How to Talk to Your Doctor contains excellent information and some very good advice. After reading this book, I realize that I can talk with my doctor even if I'm not an expert on medical matters and understand the diagnosis and information collecting procedures well enough to get good medical care, and know when I'm not getting good care. That's just as important. It's nice to have a simple method outlined for understanding doctors and my health issues better. There's an excellent list of resources for patient aid in this book as well. This book is a bargain and a must have for anyone who doesn't work in the medical field.

Patient Self-Help Guide: How to Talk to Your Doctor contains very important information that patients need to communicate with doctors. Jane Williams teaches patients how to accurately and quickly describe their symptoms to help their doctors make accurate diagnoses the first time and avoid the diagnostic problems outlined in Dr. Groopman's, How Doctors Think book, and does so in plain language that the average patient can easily understand.

I think a major benefit of this book to patients is that it will encourage them to speak up and to seek out other doctors for help if they do not receive the help they need from their doctor. Doctors are human and therefore fallible. While I admire and respect doctors, they are not all equal in medical education, training, experience and communication skills.

Although doctors are also patients, I do not think they can truly relate to the difficulties that the average patient encounters while attempting to describe the symptoms of their illnesses to their doctors. The average patient is not trained or treated as a medical expert or given the special consideration of time that one doctor will extend to another. When a doctor presents his symptoms to another doctor, he is automatically considered credible and because he understands the medical language, the two doctors will communicate on an entirely different level than that on which the average patient will communicate with their doctor.

The Patient Self-Help Guide: How to Talk to Your Doctor and How Doctors Think are both very good books with each having different but beneficial information. How Doctors Think focuses more on understanding the way doctors think and Patient Self-Help Guide covers this also, but focuses more on helping the patient communicate effectively with doctors based on the way doctors think. The two books compliment each other and provide great information to the patient. However, the Patient Self-Help Guide provides detailed communication information, is easier to read, and supplies many resources to help patients including forms to fill out and take to their doctors appointments.

The author's a former pharmaceutical sales rep and trainer and has written a guide to the industry of pharmaceutical sales, so her medical background lends to teaching the average reader how to talk to a doctor. From misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis and understanding doctor language and concerns to lists of state medical boards and senior citizens help organizations, How to Talk to Your Doctor is filled with important resources average consumers must have.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is written in layman terms so we, as patients, can not only TALK to our doctors, but more importantly, we can also better UNDERSTAND what our doctors are saying to us! This book will help you get the courage and the knowledge to speak to your doctor about your health issues and symptoms. And the better we are at communicating with our doctors, the more likely we are to receive the correct diagnosis and the level of care we all expect and deserve. I am so glad that I read this book.... and I think it should be in every home library. This book also makes a thoughtful and USEFUL gift for parents and family members who have health issues.

I purchased this book along with How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, M.D. Thank goodness I read Dr. Groopman's book first. It is EXCELLENT! (see my review of his book). This volume is for kindergarteners. After reading the first chapter, I did something I have never done before...I packaged it with another book and sent it back to Amazon. Do yourself a favor and buy How Doctors Think...and do NOT buy this book!