by Jerome Groopman
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Product Description
Anxious about the prognosis, lost in a blur of technical jargon, and fatigued from worry or pain, people who are ill are easily overwhelmed by treatment choices. Told through eight gripping clinical dramas, Second Opinions reveals the forces at play in making critical medical decisions. Dr. Jerome Groopman illuminates the world of medicine where knowledge is imperfect, no therapy is without risks, and no outcome is fully predictable. He portrays moments of astute diagnosis and misguided perception, of lifesaving triumphs and shattering failures.
These real-life lessons prepare us to navigate the uncertain terrain of illness, and enable us to balance intuition and information, and thereby make the best possible decisions about our health and future.
Amazon.com Review
Respected AIDS and cancer specialist Jerome Groopman, M.D., discussed the convergence of illness and spirituality in his first book, The Measure of Our Days. In Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine, he shifts his focus to the ways intuition informs his medical decisions and enhances the quality of his patient relationships (even giving him an edge when examining a patient on referral). In eight chapters that vividly recount cases whose outcomes hinge as much on the doctor's gut feeling and empathy as on his expertise, Groopman eschews the impersonal and know-it-all role of the doctor, describing instead dire cases in which careful consideration of both the emotional and medical issues positively impacted his approach to treatment. "A clinical compass is built not only from the doctor's medical knowledge but also from joining his intuition with that of his patient," Groopman writes. "This melding of minds occurs when the physician probes not only his patient's body but also his spirit." This uniquely integrated compass is the guide that determines the safest, least traumatic treatment for people who are in advanced stages of illness or whose diagnoses are clinical conundrums. Of the eight stories here, there's Isabella, who was diagnosed with asthma but actually has acute leukemia; Peter, whose sickness is an enigma although he's clearly dying of a vicious lung-tissue disorder; and Alex, who will die from bone marrow failure unless its exact cause is identified. Groopman's narrative nimbly relates all the details of his patients' battles as well as the professional and emotional steps he takes when facing a medical challenge. In most cases, he has been sought out to provide a second opinion of the patient's diagnosis and proposed treatment. More often than not, the original diagnosis was inaccurate and Groopman's meticulous and insightful examinations yield findings that mean the difference between life and death. Second Opinions is a thoughtful, riveting book and a compelling tribute to the efficacy of medical care when handled responsibly and with empathy. It is also a cautionary collection of stories that reveal oversights inevitable in the health-care industry's rush to maximize efficiency, and as such it teaches an important lesson about the patient's role in ensuring a high quality of care. While Groopman runs the risk of seeming self-congratulatory, he proves himself a trustworthy advocate of patient empowerment and his sincere, articulate portrayal of intuition's subtle force will be inspirational for anyone confronting illness. --Rebecca Wright
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Engaging Descriptions.., 2008-11-02
I enjoyed his engaging writing and the non-intimidating level of medical detail. Overall, I felt Jerome had good examples to showcase
- the value of second opinions
- the value of having someone else arrest a sense of panic even when the situation was close to emergency
- the value of putting down one's ego in the face of doubt/uncertainty
- the challenges of doing medicine with limited knowledge and limited time
- the tradeoffs of not-causing-harm and taking-risk
The only con of the book I felt was that the Doctor did not showcase any situations where he goofed because of bad judgment; He was either portrayed as a champion because of superior knowledge or judgment, and when he was not able to save a life, it was because of a mystery which the doctor could not be blamed for. I suspect he could not talk about his more controversial cases due to vulnerabilities of lawsuits.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Groopman does it again!, 2008-04-11
Groopman is just a talented writer who can transcend the medical jargan and technicalities into something that becomes a joy to read. Not only informative but entertaining as well.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Thoughts from a "practicing" physician, 2008-01-09
I ran across this book when I was in the mood to review literature related to how medical decisions are made and what physicians can do to improve communication skills to their patients. The author, Dr. Jerome Groopman is a physician who has been instrumental in changing the course of treatment in other patients, himself, and his children based on his combination of intuition, knowledge, and listening skills.
As a physician in medical "practice" I have always been of the opinion that it is important to connect with patients and to condense and translate the science of medicine into practical information that patients can use to make informed decisions. The physician patient relationship has always been fraught with challenges to communication and the current proliferation of information (both good and bad) makes the physicians job that much more difficult.
In a setting with so much risk and potential danger, excellent communication is essential; however, the physician should also avoid the temptation of falling into cookie cutter solutions or oversimplification.
I am not sure that I agree with Dr. Groopman's approach in all cases, but this book is very readable and thought provoking.
It is a particularly important source for physicians who wish to explore ways to provide exceptional service to patients in today's complicated medical landscape.
Highly recommended.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Whom to trust . . ., 2004-12-01
This thought provoking and often disturbing book should come with a warning. It will make you question the judgment of your doctor if you or someone you know is ever faced with diagnosis and treatment of a life-threatening illness. Medical science and technology continue to make great strides forward, but following each of the case histories related by Dr. Groopman in this book, you realize how tenuous is the judgment of individual doctors who must advise patients and lead them to decisions affecting their health.
Reason, in the delivery of health care, is balanced against intuition, and intuition can take many forms, including doubt, egoism, professional jealousy, impatience, resistance, and anger, all of which appear at one time or another in the stories Groopman tells. Or, as one of his patients says, intuition is reason operating below the level of awareness. Making life-saving decisions is, we realize, a matter of expert guess work, and if there's a lesson here it's that the best guess work comes from intimate knowledge of the patient, which the cost-saving constraints of managed health care often prohibit.
I recommend this book for anyone wondering how much trust to put in the medical profession. A well trained and experienced doctor can still make the difference between life and death, but Groopman shows how patients need to play an active role in decisions about their own health, and that often involves seeking a second opinion and making a choice between incompatible courses of action.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Engrossing medical stories, 2001-07-23
Yes, Dr. Groopman does have a rather elevated opinion of himself, and yes, this book serves admirably as self-promotion, but, so what? Dr. Groopman's inability to assume a socially correct humility may be annoying and distracting to some, but I found it amusing and almost endearing. He wants so much to please and be that delight of mothers everywhere, "my son, the doctor," that it is impossible for him to show himself in an unflattering light. Even when he volunteers his mistakes, one has the sense that he is a larger person for having done so!Well, I can think of worse styles, and anyway, what is important about this book is not the author's self-perception, but the light he sheds on the practice of medicine for the reader, and that light is considerable. He has a fine gift for telling a story and he writes in a clear and vivid manner that is easy to read, and we are thoroughly engrossed . Furthermore, the moral of most of the very interesting stories he presents here from his practice, is that the physician's first responsibility is to the patient, not to his ego, not to his career, not to the HMOs, and not even to his fellow physicians. I was particularly impressed with Dr. Groopman's ability to criticize those physicians who let their egos and their pride come before their patients. He wasn't afraid to show how doctors who do not put the welfare of their patients first can cause pain and suffering and even death. Most doctors would never come close to being as critical of their peers as Groopman is here. I don't know whether he has an inordinate amount of courage, or a particularly thick skin, but I do know that many doctors will not be pleased with what he has revealed in these pages about the competence of some physicians, and he will pay a price for that. Also impressive was Dr. Groopman's unflinching willingness to share with the reader not just his clinical experience, but his personal experience as well. In the first chapter, "Our Firstborn Son," he and his wife, who is also a doctor, become worried parents who take their sick son to the emergency room of a hospital, feeling as vulnerable and helpless as any other parents would, especially when they become concerned that the doctor on call is misdiagnosing their son's illness. In a later chapter he shares the story of his Grandfather Max who suffered from Alzheimer's disease in a way that made him uncontrollably violent. Most significant, though, is the story he tells about himself in the prologue. It is disarming in the sense that he too is guilty of pride and suffers most painfully for it. Once a marathon runner, he ends up crippled for a year, and to this day has a chronic debility that limits his mobility, all because he thought he knew better than the doctors who were treating him. It was a great and painful lesson for a young physician, the kind of lesson that molds us to better appreciate our limits and to empathize with the suffering of others, the kind of lesson that shapes a great physician. So, I don't believe Dr. Groopman is ensconced in any ivory tower. He is a physician that is intimately involved in the welfare of his patients (and in his research), a man who understands the suffering patients go through first hand, and is sympathetic and, most important, knowledgeable and skillful. He is also a very good writer. I would be delighted to be so lucky as to have Dr. Groopman as my personal physician.
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