doctor-patient relationship
An Epidemic of Disillusioned Doctors?
“That’s it,” I thought, after an overwhelming morning in clinic. “I quit!” It’s a thought that crosses the minds of the majority of doctors, it seems. A survey of more than 13,000 doctors found that more than two-thirds feel negatively about their profession. More
Lancet review of “What Doctors Feel”
What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine is as close to a page-turner as a clinician’s story is likely to become. What Doctors Feel deserves to be well received and widely read. More
NPR Interview with Brian Lehrer: Empathy for “Undesirable” Patients
Doctors have notorious contempt for alcoholics, drug addicts, and morbidly obese patients, and they often make little effort to conceal it. By unspoken rules, these patients are considered fair game for jokes by medical personnel at all levels. Hospital slang for such patients reflects not just disgust but also anger and resentment. More
New York Times review of “What Doctors Freel”
This book’s hallmark is honesty, particularly when it comes to the emotional fallout of her medical mistakes. More
Tolerating Ambiguity
When faced with ambiguous situations, most of us — quite humanly — want to run for the tantalizing veneer of the certain. We doctors pride ourselves in the scientific girders of modern medicine. Much of the time, though, we function in an ambiguous zone, without clear-cut answers. More
Boston Globe review of “What Doctors Feel”
A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician struggling to do the best for her patients while navigating an imperfect health care system that often seems to value “efficiency,” measured in dollars and minutes, more than the emotional well-being of either physician or patient. More
Medical Errors and the Culture of Shame
It was probably our eighth or ninth admission that day, but my intern and I had given up counting. I was midway through my medical residency, already a master of efficiency. You had to be, or you’d never keep up. This one was a classic eye-roller: a nursing home patient with dementia, sent to the emergency room for an altered mental status. When you were juggling patients with acute heart failure and rampant infections, it was hard to get worked up over a demented nonagenarian who was looking a little more demented. More
Publishers Weekly review of “What Doctors Feel”
An eloquent and honest take on the inner life of medical professionals. Ofri’s passionate examination of her own fears and doubts alongside broader concerns within the medical field should be eye-opening for the public—and required reading for medical students. More
Booklist **STARRED REVIEW** of “What Doctors Feel”
Her insightful and invigorating book makes the case that it’s better for patients if a physician’s emotional compass-needle points in a positive direction. More
Kirkus Reviews: “What Doctors Feel”
An invaluable guide for doctors and patients on how to “recognize and navigate the emotional subtexts” of the doctor-patient relationship. More
Creativity in Medicine
“What are you doing creatively these days?” It’s not a question you hear commonly. Medicine is a field with a strong history of creativity, but its daily practice feels less and less creative More
When the Patient is “Noncompliant”
As soon as a patient is described as noncompliant, doctor shorthand for patients who don’t take their medication or follow medical recommendations, it’s as though a black mark is branded on the chart. More
Lemons for Weight Loss
The field of weight-loss pills is strewn with lemons. Why do both doctors and patients pretend that it’s lemonade, when it’s anything but! More
Who Deserves a Heart Transplant?
One of the most agonizing spots in medicine is the “transplant list.” In the United States, as in many countries, we rely on a simple system of altruism for organ donation. But other countries are trying different approaches. More
Doctors’ Suicide discussed on NPR
What happens it’s the doctor who commits suicide? Sadly, physicians–as a group–have a higher suicide rate than other professionals. Here’s the story of one doctor and the effects of his death on his student. More
