Vital Conversations: Improving Communication Between Doctors and Patients

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Columbia University Press, Sep 23, 2014 - Medical - 240 pages
The health-care system in the United States is by far the most expensive in the world, yet its outcomes are decidedly mediocre in comparison to those of other countries. Poor communication between doctors and patients, Dennis Rosen argues, is at the heart of this disparity, a pervasive problem that damages not only the well-being of the patient but also the integrity of the health-care system and society as a whole. Drawing upon research in biomedicine, sociology, and anthropology and integrating personal stories from his medical practice in three different countries (and as a patient), Rosen shows how important good communication between physicians and patients is to the provision of high-qualityÑand less-expensiveÑcare. Without it, treatment adherence and preventive services decline, and the rates of medical complications, hospital readmissions, and unnecessary testing and procedures rise. Rosen illustrates the consequences of these problems from both the caregiver and patient perspectives and explores the socioeconomic and cultural factors that cause important information to be literally lost in translation. He concludes with a prescriptive chapter for patients and physicians aimed at building the cultural competencies and communications skills necessary for higher-quality, less-expensive care, making medicine more satisfying for all involved.
 

Contents

1 Better Outcomes Lower Costs
1
2 One Size Does Not Fit All
31
3 When Worlds Collide
51
4 Disease Illness and Sickness
81
5 Body and Soul
115
6 Reconciling Different Worldviews
141
7 Making It Stick
161
Creating a Better Clinical Encounter
191
Notes
215
Index
237
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About the author (2014)

Dennis Rosen, MD is a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep specialist at Boston Children's Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He writes regularly for the medical press as well as for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Pacific Standard. He is also the author of Successful Sleep Strategies For Kids (A Harvard Medical School Guide).

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