How Doctors Think

And now for a bit of shameless self-promotion. My review of "How Doctors Think," a new book by Dr. Jerome Groopman of Harvard Medical School, is in the current issue of TIME Magazine (the one with a photo-shopped image of Ronald Reagan crying).



I don't recommend many books but this one is definitely worth your time. It looks at the kinds of mental traps or cognitive errors that can lead a physician astray in trying to reach the correct diagnosis--things like falling for subtle or not-so-subtle stereotypes or being too focused on one part of the body to the exclusion of the rest. This is one way bias happens.

In the course of writing this book, Groopman learned that perhaps 80% of medical mistakes are a result of these cognitive errors; the rest are because of technical errors like mixed-up test results.

Actually, all human beings are prone to these cognitive traps, but here's the extraordinary thing: Groopman believes that patients can help jog their doctors thinking by asking the right questions so that the healers are less likely to make those mistakes.

As I said in my review, I believe Groopman's book is "must reading for every physician who cares for patients and every patient who wishes to get the best care."