Volume 188 - Issue 1
Fighting for your health
Author: Rob Roseby
Med J Aust 2008; 188 (1): 57. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01510.x
Published online: 7 January 2008
Published online: 7 January 2008
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.
Shifting focus to adolescent wellbeing and inclusive participation in the digital age
Allyson R Todd, Elena Wang, Stephanie R Partridge
The clinical presentation, investigation, and management of women diagnosed with endometriosis in Australian general practices, 2011–2021: an open cohort study
Danielle Mazza, Kailash Thapaliya, Sharinne B Crawford, Alissia Hui, Maryam Moradi, Luke E Grzeskowiak
The impact of the Breast Screen NSW transition from film to digital mammography, 2002–2016: a linked population health data analysis
Rachel Farber, Nehmat Houssami, Katy J L Bell
Non‐technical errors associated with deaths in surgical care, Australia, 2012–2019, by surgical specialty (Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality): a retrospective cohort study
Jesse Ey, Victoria Kollias, Octavia Lee, Kelly Hou, Matheesha Herath, John B North, Ellie Treloar, Suzanne Edwards, Martin Bruening, Adam J Wells, Guy J Maddern
The CURE Asthma roadmap
Gary P Anderson, Anthony Flynn, Phil G Bardin, John D Blakey, Shyamali C Dharmage, Paul Foster, Peter G Gibson, Adam Jaffe, Alan James, Christine R Jenkins, Sundram Sivamalai, Peter D Sly, Guy B Marks, Vanessa M McDonald, Judy Wetttenhall
Evidence from Australian cohort studies about asthma trajectories and transitions across the life course: a narrative review
Caroline Lodge, Xin Dai, Ingrid A. Laing, Michael P Menden, Anthony Flynn, Gary P Anderson, Sarath Ranganathan, Shyamali C Dharmage