The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine (Hardcover)

~ Thomas Goetz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In an era where the explosion of medical information has far outstripped our ability to process it, we need a new way to make health choices. Goetz shows that way with a clarity, verve, and intellectual depth that is both fascinating and wise. This book will change the way you live and the way you think.”
—Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Free

 

“Thomas Goetz writes more clearly and presciently about innovations in predictive medicine and the future of healthcare than anyone on the planet.”
—Dean Ornish, MD, founder and president, Preventive Medicine Research Institute; clinical professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco; and author, The Spectrum and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease

 

“When should we get a CT scan? Why does Weight Watchers work? Should we be scared about the advent of personal genomics? Which cancer screening tests are worth the cost? Thomas Goetz takes us to the frontiers of modern medicine to answer these and other pressing questions, providing patients and doctors with a new framework for thinking about medical decisions. This book will change the way you think about your health.”
—Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist

 

“The Decision Tree is a game-changer. A brilliant synthesis of science, public health, and practical advice that puts each of us at the center of our own healthcare revolution. The best decision you can make? Read this important book.”
—Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the FDA, author of The End of Overeating

Product Description

In The Decision Tree, Thomas Goetz proposes a new strategy for thinking about health, one that applies cutting-edge technology and sound science to put us at the center of the equation. An individual’s Decision Tree begins with genomics, where $400 and a test tube of spit provides a peek at how your DNA influences your health. It taps self-monitoring and collaborative health tools, where iPhone applications and next-generation monitoring gadgets can help individuals successfully change their behavior, once and for all. And it turns to new screening techniques that detect diseases like cancer and diabetes far earlier and with far better prospects for our health. Full of thoughtful, groundbreaking reporting on the impact personalized medicine will have on the average patient, The Decision Tree will show you how to take advantage of this new frontier in health care.

 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (February 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605297291
• ISBN-13: 978-1605297293
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #2 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Disorders & Diseases > Genetic
  #8 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Administration & Medicine Economics > Public Health > Health Care
  #79 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Healthy Living

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and important book, January 28, 2010

By	Irfan A. Alvi (Towson, MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

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When it comes to assessing the problems with our health care system and identifying ways to make it better, this book by Thomas Goetz is among the best I've ever read. Hopefully, it will be highly influential, especially considering that we live in an age when most of the "easy" medical problems have been solved and the hard ones remain (eg, cancer and many chronic conditions). Goetz proves to be an incisive analyst, a creative thinker, a balanced pragmatist, and a lucid writer.

The main idea presented in this book is that decision tools need to be developed which enable all available information to be rationally, systematically, and efficiently assembled and weighed in order to cost-effectively maximize individual and collective health outcomes. In other words, health care needs an engineering approach. This is really just common sense, yet our health care system unfortunately falls far short of this ideal, so we need books like this to help open people's eyes.

Here are some further key points from the book:

* Patients need to play an active role in their health care decisions, using physicians and other health care professionals largely as consultants, and collaborating with other patients in sharing information.

* Health care information (medical records, drug labels, etc.) needs to be presented in a sensible standardized format and made easily accessible online on a real-time basis.

* To account for biological heterogeneity among people, preventive measures and treatments need to be tailored to each individual. Thus, the information used to make decisions must include both statistical information drawn from populations as well as specific information particular to each individual (both phenotypic and genetic).

* Costs need to be controlled by emphasizing prevention of disease, lowering the cost for FDA drug approval, avoiding replacement of older/cheap drugs with newer/expensive drugs which aren't significantly better, avoiding use of expensive drugs which don't significantly improve outcomes (eg, many cancer drugs), using/avoiding screening based on relationship to outcomes, avoiding overuse of expensive medical technology, and linking physician payments at least partly to outcomes rather than extent of services.

The above ideas overlap considerably with ideas I arrived at myself after years of intense involvement with health care issues (especially related to cancer research and treatment). For example, see my detailed review of The War on Cancer: An anatomy of failure, A blueprint for the future by Guy Faguet.

This is a brilliant and important book, and I can't recommend it strongly enough.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a doctor's perspective.., February 16, 2010

By	Shigeki Minami - See all my reviews

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As a physician with a public health background, I have a healthy amount of scepticism when 'the next great book' comes along and claims to change the way we live. However, while reading Goetz' book, it didn't take long for me to realize I was in for a wonderful surprise. Perhaps it is his background as an editor at Wired magazine that makes his writing so engaging. Combine that with a solid grounding in the public health arena and the result is impressive. Although written with the patient in mind, this book will serve as an invalubale tool for clinical practitioners and epidemiologists alike. It opens a window into the field of medicine that I found fascinating and highly educational. More importantly, it gives us a glimpse at the way the doctor-patient relationship will look in the future. And, whether we like it or not, as Goetz eloquently reminds us, we would be wise to take notice now.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What to Expect When You're Expecting a Long Life, February 16, 2010

By	S. Fox (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Thomas Goetz catalogs the recent advances (and setbacks) in medicine & personal health, but also maps out the possibilities for how things could get better. He does this so convincingly that you can't believe it's not already taking root: clear labeling on drugs & food, passive tracking of our exercise routines, open access to our health data.

There are enough lessons for self-improvement in the book that I found myself comparing it to What to Expect When You're Expecting, but since Goetz focuses on the big picture (prevention, diagnosis, disease management) it is more like What to Expect When You're Expecting a Long Life.

Unlike the pregnancy bible I read 10 years ago (and more than once threw across the room), Goetz doesn't preach from a lofty whole-grain pulpit. He doesn't think we should ask people to do more, nor should we scold people for every mistake they have made, but rather we should give them tools to make better health choices.

You know how MDs are always asked for cocktail-party diagnoses? This book is for all the MPHs who stood nearby wishing that someone would ask them for on-the-spot health advice.