Your health, your decisions
Subtitle: how to work with your doctor to become a knowledge-powered patient
By: Robert Alan McNutt
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 150
ISBN-13: 9781469629179
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Medical care; Physician and patient; Decision making
Other titles: How to work with your doctor to become a knowledge-powered patient
Description: "In nearly every medical-decision-making encounter, the physician is at the center of the discussion, with the patient the recipient of the physician's decisions. Dr. Robert Alan McNutt starts from a very different premise: the patient should be at the center. McNutt challenges the physician-directed, medical-expertise model of making decisions, presenting a practical approach augmented by formal exercises designed to give patients the tools and confidence to compare and contrast their health-care options so they can make their own choices. He addresses a number of scenarios, including heart disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer -- conditions that pose a range of choices that patients may face about diagnoses and treatments. After providing a clear explanation of what is the highest quality medical-decision-making information, McNutt teaches patients to use that information to weigh the harms and benefits of their treatment options, empowering them to ask critical questions as they take a stronger hand in their own care. Your Health, Your Decisions moves from specific scenarios that commonly baffle patients to a systematic exploration of how to make medical decisions. By offering patients the tools they need to be full partners in their own health care, McNutt demystifies what can be a bewildering and even terrifying process."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: A story of failed decision making; title: My medical-decision-making story; title: Why not just ask my doctor what to do?; title: Personal barriers to becoming your own medical decision maker; title: Medical information; title: Understanding medical information from experiments; title: Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?; title: The math of medical decision making; title: How to determine the value of potential gains and losses to your health; title: Making decisions; title: Mr. B; title: Beginning to make a decision; title: The flow of information for people making medical decisions; title: Mr. C; title: Mrs. D's not-so-dramatic decision to make; title: Using the informed medical-decision-making process for tests; title: What if there is no reliable information?; title: Clarifications; title: Where to look for valuable medical information.