Video Introduction to Critical Decisions
Here is my latest Critical Decisions video. This one gives a broad introduction to the reasons I wrote the book.
Here is my latest Critical Decisions video. This one gives a broad introduction to the reasons I wrote the book.
Imagine picking up a telephone and hearing your doctor tell you there is a “999 out of 1,000 chance that you’ll be dead within a decade.” That’s what Leonard Mlodinow experienced in 1989, when his routine HIV test didn’t turn out the way he expected. Mlodinow tells this story in his 2008 book, The Drunkard’s Walk,…
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…
I write frequently about the importance of perspective taking in clinician/patient interaction. Seeing the world through other people’s eyes is also a crucial moral and political skill. No surprise then that Abe Lincoln showed great perspective taking abilities. Consider these words, from an 1854 speech on slavery: I think I have no prejudice against the…
“I can fix this.” The neurosurgeon was nothing if not confident. “The cyst is pushing on your spinal cord. If it continues to expand, it will damage your nerves and you may lose the ability to walk. But I can remove the cyst, and cure you.” The patient was a business school professor, a man…
Karen Vogt’s breast cancer journey began like many others, with her breasts painfully squeezed into a mammography machine. At age 52, it was far from her first mammogram, but this scan would be the most consequential by far. It revealed microcalcifications, little areas of breast tissue speckled with deposits of calcium that her radiologist worried…
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!