The patient from hell: how I worked with my doctors to get the best of modern medicine and how you can too. Stephen H Schneider, with Janica Lane. Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press, 2006 (xix + 300 pp). ISBN 978 0 7382 1078 0.

When Doug, the father of a patient of mine, handed me this book, I should not have been so worried. I am a paediatrician and practitioner of evidence-based medicine; reading this has triggered me to reflect on my own thought processes and practice.

The book is written by world-renowned climate expert, Professor Stephen Schneider. He was diagnosed with a rare lymphoma in 2002 and chronicles his course, making astute observations on the processes surrounding his tests and treatments. He questions everything, suggesting changes to just about anyone who will listen. Schneider and his wife, both intelligent academics, gather information but also take responsibility for his disease and make health care professionals part of their team, rather than the other way around. When the data are absent, they challenge doctors to make decisions using decision analysis and Bayesian thinking tools (prompting me to re-examine notes from a course I took on decision analysis and to read more about Bayes’ theorem).

There is much we can learn about the health care conveyor belt by taking the patient’s perspective. Paediatricians know that children with good advocates generally get the best out of health professionals, and other patients would probably benefit from good advocacy too. Schneider overstates it by calling himself a “patient from hell” — he is simply doing what he can to get the best out of the health care team. Every patient should attempt to do so, but not many could use Schneider’s approach. I wonder what the health consumer may feel reading it — perhaps intimidated if they can’t be as dogmatic and thorough as he is. Hence, this book is perhaps more valuable for health professionals than patients.

I still don’t know what Doug was trying to say by lending me this book, but I’m glad he did. I commend this book to every doctor.