A legendary phrase stands out that doctor treats but it is God, who heals. . Medical environment is increasingly becoming complex with physicians fearing failure and medical errors occurring mostly in cognition at a rate of 35% in a given time. Doctors are engaged in a thought process which helps them give verdict on how to diagnose and or treat patients and this depends on the training they got and their impatient nature. It’s a mix of the soul and science that unearths the best in medicine tasking physicians to care for patients and patients to go for the best care and not view the doctors through the same eyes again.
That personal bias, norms and tradition, science and money incentives influence the thinking of doctors and it isn’t just a battle between medical decisions and money. Medical Decisions and Expert Uncertainty When Groopman(2007) points out that patients are interrupted by physicians on average 12 seconds and decide on the diagnosis within that shortest time he forgets that there are other patients waiting for treatment and that much often such decisions are accurate except in rare circumstances.
We must not forget that doctors are human beings prone to error and that with our help by communicating effectively they can embrace uncertainty and give judgments that impact on our health positively. A physician goes through a patient’s history and the physical signs and or symptoms then based on empirical studies and clinical experience he is able to diagnose the illness. The technology a physician relies on, his specialty, emotional state and his age can all result in varied mistakes and therefore doctors should be trained on how to recognize when they are straying during cognition.
But in every career there are successes and failures that inevitably occur due to daily pressures and a practicing doctor falls prey to this during diagnosis and treatment. Groopman (2007) focuses on diagnosis in the physician world which skews the professional profile a bit because he should also concentrate on the details faced by doctors in handling patients because it is through communication with patients that doctors diagnose.
The “Zebra retreat” concept in the book that accuses doctors of not thinking the extreme by a discard of rare diagnosis is true because in most statistics patients suffer from common ailments that with experience doctors can easily diagnose and treat. Time is not only money but can also cost life, besides not all errors in practice can be eliminated by spending more time with a patient to take full medical history when there are many mysterious problems in human illness.
In this era of growing pressure of increased patients and efficient treatment, Groopman (2008) should come up with concrete ideas on that diagnosis type or to improve medicine and not point fingers. Conclusion Most physicians are trained well, mean well and are willing to help. But to improve the health care system as a patient one must be able to honestly communicate in order to take responsibility for his health care to begin with not by loading it all to the doctor.
That the best diagnosis and treatment depends on the patient’s character and the rapport with the physician is true to some extend. By asking rigorous questions patients can easily manage doctors because some patients go for comfort and not cure by focusing on the short term. Physicians should be accurately educated by pharmaceutical companies with regard to drug side effects and potential benefits. Work Sited Groopman, J. (2007). How Doctors Think. New York: Houghton-Mifflin