When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests

THE MORE INFORMED YOU ARE ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES AND THE MEDICAL SYSTEM THE BETTER FOR YOU, SO THIS BOOK CAN BE HELPFUL. HOWEVER I DO NOT ENJOY THE WRITING STYLE IT IS JOLTY AND DOES NOT FLOW EASILY.

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This is an extremely important topic - and I had great hopes for this book, but...Perhaps if a person doesn't already know about patients' rights or is intimidated by physicians, this book might be helpful but.... Sadly, when a physician refuses to listen to the patient, it's usually a bad physician and nothing can be done but switch to someone else. Too often, the degree of not listening is not apparent until said physician writes the medical report. It is then the patient finds that the history, symptoms, sequence of significant events they have reported- is all wrongly described in the report - as well as the inappropriate referral for treatment based on all those errors of fact. Thanks to the phenomenon of anchoring bias in the medical profession, the next physician down the line won't listen to the patient either because the flawed medical report/referral says something else. It becomes the patient's responsibility to battle a physician with poor listening skills for an accurate report.There is something incredibly naive about this book - hopeful in its way - but somehow disingenuous. I found it disappointing and somewhat annoying. Perhaps I missed something...