As if being diagnosed with breast cancer wasn’t bad enough, many women with this diagnosis face complicated decisions about what kind of medicine or chemotherapy to take, if any, to reduce their chance of cancer recurrence. As I discussed in a recent post, the mathematics of such decisions can be hard to comprehend for many patients. …
Put simply, shared decision making is the gold standard — the sine qua non* — for how medical decisions ought to be made. The pipe medical choice is rarely a function of medical facts alone. Tough decisions require value judgments, and it is the patient’s valuesthat often determine which choice is best. An operation cannot…
JoAnn Pushkin’s breast cancer was diagnosed at an advanced stage because the density of her breasts obscured the tumor on her mammograms. That was shocking news to Pushkin, who only learned that her breasts were radiologically dense at the time of her diagnosis. Activated by this revelation, she has become a leading advocate of legislation,…
I’m happy to say that my favorite independent bookstore, Flyleaf Books, is working with me to make autographed copies of Critical Decisions available to anyone who orders through them. You can order on their website: www.flyleafbooks.com If you do, add a note to your order asking for an autographed copy Or you can order the…
Want a sneak peak into why I wrote Critical Decisions? Take a look at this 5 minute video. Feel free to send links to all your friends, so they won’t fall behind the times!
At long last, my new book Critical Decisions is out there, ready to reach (fingers crossed!) a wide and appreciative audience. I’m really excited about this book. It pulls together ideas that have been smoldering in my brain for two decades — research, reflections and experiences (AKA “stories”). In the book, I relate the fascinating…
Critical Decisions is officially released right after Labor Day. Here is a Q&A on Duke Today to whet your appetite in the meantime. Q: We’ve probably all been there. You are sitting in a paper gown as a doctor describes your prognosis. Sometimes the next steps are treatable and straightforward. Other times, decisions can literally be…
Making important decisions in the dark can be stressful. But a recent study suggests that shining a light on decisions can make decision makers even more anxious. The question remains: Is this anxiety a good thing or a bad …. (Read the rest and view comments at Critical Decisions)
LeBron James exploded past his defender and raced towards the lane. Serge Ibaka, the Thunder’s mountainous center, planted his feet and raised his hands straight up into the air. LeBron ducked his left shoulder and plowed right into Ibaka, who went crashing backwards into a nearby cameraman.
Offensive foul?
A recent economic analysis concluded that patients with metastatic cancer value their treatments significantly more than regulators recognize, with many expensive new therapies looking like veritable bargains to most patients.
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