Medical Nonfiction: Uncaring

Summary: Occasionally repetitive, but incredibly informative and interesting!

This is a book about the way physician culture contributes to the dysfunction of the American health care system. The author carefully acknowledges the heroic efforts that medical professionals make to save lives. However, he also notes that a preference for this kind of heroic work, causes healthcare workers to overlook the important but less flashy work of preventative medicine. It also leads doctors to believe they can be good at everything, although specialization leads to better patient outcomes. There are many other problems related to a focus on prestige and resistance to change as well.

Obviously, the information in this book is valuable to have as a patient. Even just reading the descriptions of physician culture started to give me some ideas of things to look for in a doctor. On top of that, the author has put together a collection of questions he suggests you ask your doctors. These seem especially helpful if you’re looking to undergo a more serious procedure.

In addition to being useful, this was a fascinating insider look at this profession. It was incredible to read about how practicing medicine has changed over the past few decades and how doctors have reacted to that. Some of the darker, more anti-scientific elements of doctor culture were also really shocking.

I do have two small complaints with this book. One is that it sometimes became repetitive. I think the organization could have been better. Sometimes gimmicks, like writing one chapter as a court case against doctors and using analogies that are a bit of stretch, took away from the message. Second, the author was the CEO of Kaiser Permanente and sometimes this reads as an ad for them. To an extent, this makes sense. There are changes the author recommends, he was able to implement them at this company, and so they’re an obvious example he can use to show his ideas working.

Despite these few small problems, I’d definitely recommend it. It was interesting reading and includes info every patient should have.

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