Your Health, Your Decisions: How to Work with Your Doctor to Become a Knowledge-Powered Patient

by Robert Alan McNutt

Overview

In nearly every medical-decision-making encounter, the physician is at the center of the discussion, with the patient the recipient of the physician's decisions. Dr. Robert Alan McNutt starts from a very different premise: the patient should be at the center. McNutt challenges the physician-directed, medical-expertise model of making decisions, presenting a practical approach augmented by formal exercises designed to give patients the tools and confidence to compare and contrast their health-care options so they can make their own choices. He addresses a number of scenarios, including heart disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer—conditions that pose a range of choices that patients may face about diagnoses and treatments.

After providing a clear explanation of what is the highest quality medical-decision-making information, McNutt teaches patients to use that information to weigh the harms and benefits of their treatment options, empowering them to ask critical questions as they take a stronger hand in their own care. Your Health, Your Decisions moves from specific scenarios that commonly baffle patients to a systematic exploration of how to make medical decisions. By offering patients the tools they need to be full partners in their own health care, McNutt demystifies what can be a bewildering and even terrifying process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469629179
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert Alan McNutt, M.D., is a clinician, researcher, teacher, decision analyst, former medical editor, and, now, a decision-making consultant. He is the president and CEO of YouChooseMedical, LLC.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This excellent book explains medical decisions—often life and death—in powerful but personal ways. Your Health, Your Decisions is both very engaging and necessary.—Ross Koppel, coeditor of First, Do Less Harm: Confronting the Inconvenient Problems of Patient Safety

With examples based in clinical trials citing recent, sound research, this book will help patients understand the major principles of decision making in a practical and clear way.—Alan Schwartz, the Michael Reese Endowed Professor of Medical Education and Research Professor of Pediatrics, University of Illinois at Chicago

Editorial Reviews

An extraordinarily powerful tool for patients, but it is equally powerful for medical educators to help their students keep the patient perspective in the forefront during their learning process. 5 Stars!—Doody's Book Reviews

With McNutt's cooperative problem-solving insight, patients will feel like partners rather than pawns in the health-care system.—Foreword Reviews

Assist[s] patients with making informed, knowledgeable health care treatment choices. . . . A valuable supplemental text for advanced nursing students, physician assistant students, and medical students. Recommended.—CHOICE

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)
Description: This book is designed to help patients understand some of the factors that clinicians take into account in making diagnostic and treatment decisions.
Purpose: Most laypersons have little insight into physicians' medical decision-making process and, until recently, there has been no public discussion about this subject. Dr. McNutt explains that during his time in the practice of medicine, there has been a drastic change in the volume of information available. He provides his perspective on moving into academic medicine and his experiences as a medical journal editor. He characterizes current medical care as a "top-down" industry and states that it is time to reorient medicine to "put the patient on top."
Audience: The audience is diverse, ranging from patients, including physicians as patients, to clinicians to policymakers and legislators who define the business of patient care.
Features: Interestingly, Dr. McNutt explains how to read the book in order to see the benefit of his premise. One might look askance at such a suggestion, but it does help to understand what the author is outlining. Thoughtfully, he starts with a patient case, moves quickly into his decision-making thought process, turns the responsibility of decision-making toward the patient and explains why, and then leads the reader-patient through a series of exercises to help the patient assimilate the information. Finally, he presents additional cases to show how patients make their personal decisions.
Assessment: This is an extraordinarily powerful tool for patients, but it is equally powerful for medical educators to help their students keep the patient perspective in the forefront during their learning process. The book is a tremendous learning experience for all who take the time to work through it.

Doody's Review Service