Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis

I never watch t.v. Except for House, MD. I love the detective work undertaken by House and gang while their patient is hemorrhaging, coding and developing various gross pustules. Unlike Dr. House and his cumurdgeonly character, however, this book gives medicine a soul. It highlights the importance of the patient's story. Not just as a way of recognizing the "patient" as a human being, but also as a critical tool in the diagnostic process. The book has a number of sections that read as well as any good mystery, and the author uses these to highlight the richness and complexity of the people seen by the doctors as well as the medical problems that they present to the physicians in the book. She is forthright about many of the problems facing doctors at this moment in time, especially the tendency to downplay thorough physical examination skills in preference to the high tech wonders of today's modern medicine. But I came away from the book with a profound respect for the people who - day in and day out - care for those of us who move from the world of normal daily life into the world of illness. I also came away with a healthy respect for not being afraid to seek a second (and third, if necessary) opinion on those occasions where that may be warranted. This is an fascinating book that kept me on the edge of my seat while I learned things about medicine that I never would have thought would have been that interesting. All in all, a really good read!

ng a diagnosis. Making a diagnosis seems to be an easy undertaking from a patient's perspective, at least for me. However, as Dr. Lisa Sanders explained, the process of making a diagnosis from a physician's perspective can be challenging and complex. There is no magic formula in making a diagnosis. If there was a magic formula, patients can simply be diagnosed by humanoids and/or the internet. Although therapeutic agents have advanced in the past few decades and medical research has provided reliable answers to fundamental questions like who should use them, which therapies to use, how to use them, and etc., effective therapy hinges on accurate diagnosis. By sharing some of the most peculiar patient cases, Dr. Lisa Sanders explained some of the key ingredients in making accurate diagnosis - i.e. listening to the patient's story, testing, thinking, and performing a careful physical exam. I don't know how much of the said ingredients are taught in med-school or residency, nevertheless, it seems like some of these ingredients were not taught or taught incorrectly based on some people Dr. Lisa Sanders interviewed. The patient cases were mysterious as the title suggested. For instance, a healthy patient suddenly losing his memory, a patient who was diagnosed with Lyme disease but the symptoms kept returning, and a young woman kept bleeding in the ICU - and the doctors don't know the root cause of the bleeding. I enjoyed reading the medical cases in this book, albeit they are sad to ingest because they reminded me that life is short and these ailments can happen to anyone. All in all, there's much to learn from this book especially for someone like me who pays very little attention to diagnosis during a doctor visit. As a note, although this book was published in 2009 and as I mentioned medicine has advanced much since, there is much to appreciate about this book, especially for current and future physicians, because patients' stories do not go stale; there are always lessons learned from each patient story. Thank you Dr. Lisa Sanders for documenting these medical stories.

Nice read for any budding medical professional, but also written for non-medical professionals to understand.

I have worked with many physicians and allied health care providers ranging from nurses, respiratory therapists, EMT-Paramedics and below, and have long marveled at how formulaic and thinking-free patient assessment has become, with the quality of patient care being equally generic. While for the majority of conditions this works--hence the algorithms and pseudo-assessments, when anything out of the ordinary presents itself, the weaknesses of our healthcare education model comes through like a red-headed monster of shame. This book does a credible job of at least trying to justify the cookie-cutter approach of medicine today, but emphasizes the benefits, in case-study style, of intelligent practitioners on both the practitioners and the patients. I can only hope the concepts and ideals espoused by this book make their way into 3rd & 4th year medicine where they stand a chance, because right now, so many healthcare types are oblivious to what is in front of them. The author makes her point(s) using a number of interesting cases, and if you enjoy playing medical detective, you may like that as well. I hope to present some of the points in the book to our graduating paramedic class.

I bought this book for my nephew and his girl friend who are both training to be doctors. I read a bit and liked it--easy to read for none medical people. My nephew said "thanks for the book it`s brilliant,I can`t put it down!!"

ちょっとした患者の一言、些細な理学所見によりいかに名探偵が診断を下すのか。見たものを見ることができないとき如何に患者が悲惨な目に遭うか、ハイテク時代の全ての医師に大きな問題を提起している。軽い読み物としてもお勧め。

Lo recomiendo ampliamente, para los médicos es una gran lectura y especialmente para nosotros los clínicos, 5 estrellas yo le doy

Interesting insight to the challenge of diagnosing diseases.

Nice travel along medical diagnosis as experienced by doctors; it shows how much a good doctor needs to have good studies, deep experience, a good dose of empathy and humility.