Patient Care

From Tom Brokaw, the best-selling author of The Greatest Generation, comes a powerful memoir of a year of dramatic change - a year spent battling cancer and reflecting on a long, happy, and lucky life.

This is a book of miracles - medical events witnessed by leading physicians for which there is no reasonable medical explanation, or, if there is, the explanation itself is extraordinary. These dramatic first-person essays detail spectacular serendipities, impossible cures, breathtaking resuscitations, extraordinary awakenings, and recovery from unimaginable disasters. Miracles We Have Seen is a book of inspiration and optimism, and a compelling glimpse into the lives of physicians.

In his exceptionally thought-provoking and moving memoir, neurosurgeon Joseph D. Stern explores how personal loss influences the way physicians relate to patients and their families.

While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. Physicians are assumed to be objective, rational beings, easily able to detach as they guide patients and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. But understanding doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice can make all the difference on giving and getting the best medical care.

How can you protect your right to a balanced life, in a profession that demands perfection? Medical life is challenging. The culture is competitive, the environment intense, the machinery complex and unwieldy, and the expectations high. Under such constant stress, many doctors sacrifice their own wellbeing to try and provide the best possible care for their patients. Coaching offers a way to immediately start bridging this known gap. You are a whole human, and it's time to treat yourself like it.

Hardly anyone is happy with American health care these days. Patients are getting sicker and going bankrupt from medical bills. Doctors are burning out and making dangerous mistakes. Both parties blame our nation’s outdated and dysfunctional health care system. But that’s only part of the problem. In this important and timely book, Dr. Robert Pearl shines a light on the unseen and often toxic culture of medicine.

Despite her training and years of experience as an oncology and hospice nurse, Brown finds it difficult to navigate the medical maze from the other side of the bed. Why is she so often left in the dark about procedures and treatments? Why is she expected to research her own best treatment options? Why is there so much red tape? At times she’s mad at herself for not speaking up and asking for what she needs but knows that being a “difficult” patient could mean she gets worse care.

As a University of Chicago–trained economist and Harvard medical school professor and doctor, Anupam Jena is uniquely equipped to answer these questions. And as a critical care doctor at Massachusetts General who researches health care policy, Christopher Worsham confronts their impact on the hospital’s sickest patients. In this singular work of science and medicine, Jena and Worsham show us how medicine really works, and its effect on all of us.

When you are told that you have leukemia, your world stops. Your brain can't function. You are asked to make decisions about treatment almost immediately, when you are not in your right mind. And yet you pull yourself together and start asking questions. Beside you is your doctor, whose job it is to solve the awful puzzle of bone marrow gone wrong. The two of you are in it together. In When Blood Breaks Down, Mikkael Sekeres, a leading cancer specialist, takes listeners on the journey that patient and doctor travel together.

Moneyball meets medicine in this remarkable chronicle of one of the greatest scientific quests of our time - the groundbreaking program to answer the most essential question for humanity: How do we live and die? - and the visionary mastermind behind it.

What if we could see a doctor faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost? With the emergence of telemedicine, we now can. And this book is a primer on telemedicine for anyone who wants to take charge of their health and understand all their healthcare options. This valuable guide illustrates why telemedicine is not only a viable solution to many of our healthcare problems but also an inevitable and crucial one.

From birth to death, a lyrical exploration of the role of transformation in human life. To be alive is to be in perpetual metamorphosis: Growing, healing, learning, aging. In Shapeshifters, physician and writer Gavin Francis considers the inevitable changes all of our bodies undergo - such as birth, puberty, and death, but also laughter, sleeping, and healing - and those that only some of our bodies will: Like getting a tattoo, experiencing psychosis, suffering anorexia, being pregnant, or undergoing a gender transition.

Adults who have been undiagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face a daily struggle but remain unaware there is a way to make life better. This audiobook explains the process of autism diagnosis through a former patient's personal account after being diagnosed with autism. Containing humorous anecdotes and stories, this audiobook provides an alternative perspective of looking at autism spectrum disorder.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the future looks scary and uncertain. What treatment options are there? What will your quality of life be? How do you talk to your family about your diagnosis? What are the financial implications? If you find yourself with more questions than answers then you need Living with Pancreatic Cancer.

Death comes in many forms, and medical professionals have seen them all. The first pair of hands to hold us when we enter this world and the last to comfort us when we leave it usually belong to a member of the healing profession. Where one finds death and drama, one also finds ghosts. Small wonder that doctors, nurses, paramedics, and the patients that they treat regularly encounter the spirits of the departed. Sometimes, those spirits are friendly. But not always...

Author and spine surgeon Dr. David Hanscom has observed that in this era of corporate medicine, surgical decisions are often made quickly, without a complete evaluation or attempt at nonsurgical rehabilitation before proceeding. The result? The majority of spine operations are unnecessary, and many surgeries are performed on spines with normal, age-related conditions.

Dr. Erika Schwartz believes that today's patient is but a leaf blowing in the wind of groupthink protocols, corrupt medical societies, insurance companies on the take, and billions of dollars in marketing and lobbying pressure from drug companies. What is the quick fix? The answers are here in 10 clear chapters, giving examples every step of the way. It's a simple process that takes you, the patient, from being a victim to being in charge.

Por Qué Nos Rebelamos describe lo que está mal con la medicina industrializada, como ha corrompido su misión y ha dejado de cuidar del paciente. Montori rescata el lenguaje del cuidado del paciente y propone una revolución de compasión y solidaridad, de conversaciones sin prisa, y de una atención cuidadosa y gentil.

While modern medicine produces miracles, it also delivers care that is too often unsafe, unreliable, unsatisfying, and impossibly expensive. For the past few decades, technology has been touted as the cure for all of healthcare's ills. But medicine stubbornly resisted computerization - until now. Over the past five years, thanks largely to billions of dollars in federal incentives, health care has finally gone digital.

Most consumers agree their service experiences with hospitals, clinics, and physicians fall well short of their service experiences with hotels, resorts, and restaurants. So, what would their experiences be like if healthcare providers served them the same way hospitality providers do? Given that both industries share many common service touchpoints, one wonders whether healthcare service providers could adopt principles of hospitality to enhance the patient experience. The insights shared in this book reveal the answer: yes!