I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately only because of what's become available from my library holds list. I enjoy the break from novels, though, and find that well-written books exploring the "real world" can be every bit as engaging. That's certainly the case with Lisa Sanders' first work. Dr. Sanders (Yale Med. Center) writes a fascinating monthly column for the New York Times magazine called "Diagnosis," in which she describes the process of diagnosing patients with strange, unpredictable and inexplicable symptoms.
Every Patient Tells a Story details the role of the physical exam in medicine, describing how doctors are taught the process, how hi-tech tests are replacing looking, listening and touching and how many medical errors are made when doctors neglect to either perform an exam or run appropriate tests.
The most interesting parts of the book are the specific case studies: everything from a patient who self-diagnoses her Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever to one who lives for two years thinking she has Chronic Lymes Disease only to finally be diagnosed with a rare form of arthritis. Ultimately, the book argues that medicine is an art. Doctors are human and, thus, fallible, which provides no great comfort but at least makes the reader more sensitive to the intricacies of diagnosis.
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