5 comments about Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th Edition (Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine).

1. I ordered this text on 5/18/08. Today is 6/19/08. WOuld love to review it if I had received it... still waiting.



2. Well, I belive that it's a bit overcomplicated. I've got the 14th edition and it is more practical. The 17th has way to many unnecesary charts, tables, however they took out a lot of important tables, guidelines wich were important. Some chapters are reduced 50% (eg. pneumonias)......I am a bit dissapointed i was expecting more.



3. This is an exceptional book. The level of coverage on any given topic is often 'the final authority' when other books don't have the answers.
   
   I have a considerably older version of this book circa 1978 or so and decided to update my resources for a recertification exam. While this served as an excellent reference, I did find the information cumbersome to find, with the extensive index often directing me to a single instance of the item I was searching for as part of the label of a photograph (with no particularly useful information in the photograph), for instance, sometimes requiring me to look up 10 different points and reference the pdfs on the DVD to find an answer. In short the referencing system in the index left me wasting a lot of time to find information that was a bit scatterred. This tended to make me use the book as a last resort rather than a first choice.
   
   The book is such a masterpiece of medical knowledge that giving it less than 5 stars would be unthinkable to me, but it could still be improved upon. One suggestion might be an index added to the DVD with a sophisticated search mechanism with some annotations or excerpts giving a preview of where the 'bulk' of information might be found. The quality of the information is exceptional throughout the text.



4. I would very much have actually liked to use this product. Unfortunately, after ordering the "2 volume set," I received only 1 volume. And while the product description mentions a DVD, no such DVD came accompanying this book.
   
   In addition, I received poor customer service from phone support and e-mail.
   
   If you want this book, DON'T BUY IT FROM AMAZON!
   
   I understand that this will most likely not be posted. I would just like the company to own up to its own mistakes.



5. arrived on time and in good condition, however since i was not around to receive the package, i had to go to the local post office to claim it

5 comments about Heal Your Body.

1. Easily one of the best books of it's kind. I've been using this book for 10 years now and I love it! My children use the affirmations. I use the affirmations in my personal training business with my clients I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!



2. If I could give no stars, I would. I'm putting this review on each of Louise Hay's titles to warn people who fall into believing that this is a caring, compassionate person. I met her recently at an event and was about to compliment her on one of the books her company publishes that Dr. Dyer wrote for children. Louise Hay was so incredibly rude to me before I even got to open my mouth that I was shocked. The woman seemed to be only about capitalism, power and ego and, though I had been a previous customer of her publishing company, I will NEVER purchase anything by them again nor will I recommend them. I will not give money to someone so ill-behaved, let alone someone who's telling others to be nice when they haven't learned that lesson themselves. Louise Hay, I hope someone on your team shares this with you. You should be ashamed of yourself for being so nasty!
   
   By contrast, I have dealt with the people at Sound's True a zillion times and all of them are as nice as can be and behave in accordance with their products. I spoke with their people at the same event (and others before it) and they were all lovely.
   
   And, no, I do not work for or am in any way compensated by Sound's True. I simply people should know the truth about who practices what they preach and who doesn't. In my opinion, Hay's behavior was one step down from Cruella De Ville. If you're shocked reading that, imagine how shocked I was experiencing it from her.



3. Great book! My husband gave me this wonderful little health reference book and I liked it so much that I had a health care provider look at it and he also liked it. I bought two more to give away.



4. The book was delivered in good condition and in a timely fashion. I am very pleased with your services.



5. When I first started to read the possible causes and the affirmations I was skeptical but when it was working I was surprised and delighted that I do have the power to heal my body and mind.

5 comments about The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition.

1. A picture is worth a thousand words, but Tufte would rather right it all down. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
   
   This is a somewhat interesting book for the catalogue of historical visual presentations, but has little to offer someone working today. The most amazing thing about this book is its incessant use of verbiage instead of visual display.
   
   If Tufte intended his book as irony, then bravo.
   
   If you're looking for actual help in visual display using the tools most of us have at our disposal (not the extremely expensive software that Tufte suggests) then look elsewhere for help. I recommend:
   
   Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds
   or
   The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
   
   Indexed by Jessica Hagy
   
   If you want to see great (and fun) visual displays on the web, then hit graphjam.com, zfacts.com and indexed.blogspot.com.
   
   I would also suggest a trip to the dentist over paying for one of Tufte's seminars. Getting your teeth drilled is more pleasant than a slide show of Tufte's sculpture garden accompanied by his pedantic narcissism.



2. It definitely was interesting and educational to read and see Tufte's presentation on Visual Dispaly of Quantitative Information. He illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of graphic displays over the centuries. However, I was hoping to see more examples of current computer graphics that should be emulated in this edition instead of terse comments and skeletal constructs in this area.



3. I was able to read this fairly quickly. (stealing a few hours here and there at work).
   
   Although I did not find any direct solutions to my current problems - it definitely opened my imagination to consider new possibilities.



4. I returned to Tufte's first classic book of graphic design principles over 20 years after first discovering it. At the time, I was the corporate librarian for a major electric utility, and the explosion in the organization and creation of information by individuals with new personal-computer hardware and software was just beginning (I had an IBM PC-XT with 640Kb of RAM and two 360k floppies--no hard drive).
   
   Now, I wondered, aside from the masterpiece of graphic design that "Visual Display" of course still represents, did Tufte's theories of graphics design still apply in a world where those computers at our fingertips pack the power and sophistication of the best publishing equipment? The answer is yes: Tufte's guidelines are timeless and universal, and most of his examples predate the computer era and even the 20th century.
   
   The guidelines boil down to the single principle of making design choices that result in the simplest possible display of complex data. While that may not sound profound, Tufte provides simple and practical rules for implementing sound design choices, and the resulting improvements in your documents and web designs will be noticeable.



5. Tufte's book is a very fine book on data graphics.
   
   Although this book gives a lot of simple advice on how to effectively communicate quantitative information, it is not just a recipe-like book, as it also makes you think about a data graphic as something that is telling a story with numbers.
   
   Beware that not all advice given is easily applied using common office suites. This is by no means a problem with the book, it is just that the text is not at all software-oriented. In fact, you may start to see the limitations in the office suites themselves. So, for those who just want some fast rules to use in their favorite software, this book may not be enough, or even the most recommended one. For all other readers, I highly recommend it.

5 comments about Calculus for Dummies.

1. This is as good as the other "Dummies" books. A good resource or instructional book. Either way, a winner.



2. My back-ground: 30+ year old with a BA in Philosophy currently studying comp engineering. The author writes this book for the non mathematician. Explanations of concepts are in plain english. What separates this book from the instructions in a typical text book is the clarity in which the author explains the PURPOSE of each technique and concept. For a non-math type reading the intro to a chapter in a typical text book it is easy to not follow the intent of the concepts involved. Therefore the rest of the chapter seems as if you're just doing more and more complex things, that you do not understand, with functions that have no meaning to you. Without understanding why you are doing what you are doing you will have trouble with the topics in calculus. An example is improper integrals. Without getting to a calculus lesson here if you do not understand what makes an integral improper then you will have trouble solving problems involving them. In general, text books use formal proofs to explain what an improper integral is and how to solve them. This is the case for all concepts in calculus text books. Proofs to show a problem, proofs to show a solution. In C4D the explanations are in simple english with clear descriptions for each step.
   
   The only short comings of the book is that is does not contain problems to practice and it does not offer a very large cache of algebra tricks need for success. I did not find the lack of practice problems to be a serious drawback as practice problems are available from a number of other places e.g. text books, study guides, internet etc... Adding a section on algebra tips and tricks would have made this the best book ever but it is not fair to criticize this book for not having them as no book I have seen has one.
   
   This book is definitely valuable to someone in need of calculus who is not very strong in math.
   1) Clearly written explanations instead of mathematical proofs.
   2) Tips for remembering how to use the ***load of calculus techniques.
   3) Concise cheat-sheet (recommend memorizing it).
   4) Covers Calc 1 and much of Calc 2.
   5) Helpful in understanding concepts as textbooks (and far too many professors) fail at this.



3. This book is great as a refresher and companion to college level calculus books. It may seem, due to the title, that this is for beginners, but it is an enormous help when you draw a blank on that calc. homework assignment. It is also great for a quick review just before a test.
   
   When this book is used with the "Calculus for dummies workbook", it really enhances the standard issue calculus book and helps catch you up in a hurry.
   
   If you need calculus help and your mentor/tutor is just not available, this resource is what you need.



4. Seriously? There's a "Cheat Sheet" in the front of the book I purchased and there are at least 3 formulas incorrect. I hope no student took this in for a cheat sheet on an exam. I'd be cautious in believing what this book says.



5. I am a college student who enrolled in calculus for the first time this semester. I had ordered this book prior to starting class but it had not arrived before our first meeting. I was really worried that I would not be able to understand the material after the first lecture. I read the text book and it still did not make much sense. About a week after class started, Calculus for Dummies arrives in the mail. WOW! Mark Ryan does such an amazing job of breaking difficult concepts into more than manageable pieces. And since math builds on itself, this book seems to follow so closely with my text book it is as if they were written for each other. I think one of the greatest advantages of this book is that in the very beginning Mark explains WHAT calculus is. What a novel concept! Realizing that calculus is primarily broken in to two sections, differentiation and integration, allowed me to get an idea of what lays ahead. And getting "math speak" explained in a plainer english format makes reading my textbook a breeze. I do recommend using this book as a supplement to your text book though...not as a substitute. Using it to aid the material that you are learning in class will increasing your understanding immensely. I'm proof of that. At this point, we've taken our first mid-term exam and I earned a 94%. Thanks Mark!

5 comments about The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.

1. Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist involved in research into the human mind, but he is also an unabashed popularizer whose books are full of pop culture references (especially comic strips). Apart from a few tedious sections, "The Stuff of Thought" is one of his best books. It applies a scientific perspective to a favorite subject of mine, the relationship between language and thought. But it does it with style, exploring a range of Americana from the semantics of Bill Clinton's lies (a topic that has already received far more attention than it deserves) to the grammar of profanity (a section I find hard to read without smiling).
   
   The overarching theme is how the human mind influences the structure of language. Like most linguists, Pinker largely dismisses the notion that the influence goes the other way. That notion is the basis of the controversial Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which predicts, for example, that if you grew up speaking a language like Hopi, which lacks verb tenses, you would end up with a different perception of time than if you grew up speaking a language like English.
   
   Pinker discusses some of the alleged evidence for this hypothesis before disposing of it. For example, one Mayan language has no words for left and right. The speakers orient themselves using the mountain slope where they live, with the words "upslope" and "downslope" corresponding roughly with south and north, respectively. Researchers found that the speakers have trouble distinguishing left from right but can locate north and south after having been spun around blindfolded while indoors!
   
   Pinker spoils the picture by revealing that another Mayan people with the same aptitudes does have words for left and right. Apparently, since both groups spend most of their lives outdoors, they have a stronger sense of north and south than we do but little use for the concept of left and right. The absence of those words from the language of one group is an effect, not a cause, of the group's traits.
   
   Distinguishing cause and effect is the subject of the book's most fascinating chapter, where Pinker explains how the whole concept of causality, so central to our common experience, is tantalizingly hard to define. We perceive the flow of time as consisting of nothing but causes and effects, and this intuition is deeply entrenched in language. But "the world is not a line of dominoes in which each event causes exactly one event.... The world is a tissue of causes and effects that criss and cross in tangled patterns" (p. 215). The challenge of identifying which causes are most relevant and guessing what would have happened if not for certain events--effectively imagining an alternate universe--underlies everything from scientific knowledge to moral responsibility.
   
   One of his examples is President Garfield's assassin, who argued that "The doctors killed him; I just shot him." The wound was potentially nonfatal, but the doctors were wildly incompetent even by the standards of their day. Did this get the assassin off the hook? The jury didn't think so, and they sent him to the gallows.
   
   A more recent example came in the aftermath of 9/11. Insurance companies were pledged to reimburse for each destructive event. But was the destruction of the Twin Towers one event or two? This question held billions of dollars at stake.
   
   Questions like these are almost unanswerable because the world, contrary to our perceptions, is a continuum without clear boundaries between things. This dichotomy can be seen in the two categories of nouns, count and mass. Count nouns are words like "book," which you can count: you can talk about one book, two books, etc. Mass nouns are words like "jello" which lack that property. You can't talk about one jello or two jellos; there's just jello.
   
   Curiously, some mass nouns, like furniture, refer to material that should be countable. (We get around this problem by talking about "pieces of furniture.") And many nouns can perform both roles: "rock" is a mass noun in the sentence "The ground is made of rock" and a count noun in the sentence "I'm holding two rocks."
   
   Speakers will occasionally transform a count noun into a mass noun by imagining that something discrete is made up of an amorphous substance. Pinker's example is the distasteful statement "After he backed up, there was cat all over the driveway." His point is that the count/mass distinction doesn't force us into any particular way of thinking, because we can escape that thinking by manipulating the language. But the distinction does reveal how we choose whether to view matter as a collection of objects or as a lump of "stuff."
   
   I've only mentioned a fraction of what the book covers. With each topic, Pinker builds on the thesis that language reflects more than affects our minds, which can see past the constraints it imposes on us. Identifying these constraints helps us understand how we perceive the world and thus provides a way for us to transcend those perceptions.



2. Steven Pinker's Language Instinct was a pleasure. But The Stuff of Thought is a disappointment. I couldn't get through it. The writing is dull and lacked the lively quality of Language Instinct. The points that Pinker is trying to make are less compelling than in previous books, and I wound up unconvinced as well as uninterested. Even Pinker seems to realize that he is boring us: at one point in Chapter 3, he says "My point - and I do have one - is...." I thought to myself, I sure hope you will get to it soon, but he did not.
   
   The one exception is marvelous chapter 7 "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television". The writing in this chapter is more classic Pinker, lively, funny and instructive. Don't buy the book. Rather, read chapter 7 in the bookstore or library.



3. The Stuff of Thought is a book that covers the interaction between language and reality. I've read some other books on linguistics, but I found this to be the most interesting. Part of it is the fact that Pinker is a good author that bridges the gap between popular science and real research. The other part is that I think that semantics is the most important, and interesting part of linguistics.
   
   Steven does a great job of presenting his views on how language shows us the inner workings of the brain, and I think he makes a very strong, and interesting, case.



4. Pinker is a walking repository and critic of the ideas and written expressions of others, and he's the man to explain, say, Chomsky to you (if you can stomach it), but he's stuck in academdom. Everything I have experienced Steve saying somehow disappoints me--it's fluffed up, and can be condensed into smaller packs of information. He seems, perhaps innately, to be constructing an impenetrable wall of unnecessary denseness in an effort, woont u kno it, to simplify and clarify "language". The result is gunk in the engine of communication.



5. I am a Pinker fan and I enjoyed this book but it is closely written with much detailed linguistic background to support Pinker's ideas on the relation between cognition and language. Entertaining sections include the one on dirty words and his critique of Fodor's "Extreme Nativism":
   
   "Fodor is a brilliant, witty, and pugnacious scholar who, among other things, helped to lay the conceptual foundations for cognitive science and to develop the scientific study of sentence comprehension.5 His notorious theory that we are born with some fifty thousand innate concepts (a conventional estimate of the number of words in a typical English speaker's vocabulary) makes an appearance here not as a player in the nature-nurture debate but as a player in the debate over how the meanings of words are represented in people's minds. In the preceding chapter, I proposed that the human mind contains representations of the meanings of words which are composed of more basic concepts like "cause," "means," "event," and "place." Fodor begs to differ. He believes that the meanings of words are atoms, in the original sense of things that cannot be split. ......"

5 comments about Kaplan GRE Exam Math Workbook.

1. Don't waste your time and money buying this book! It wasn't helpful at all! I found that Baaron's Math part is really comprehensive and educative. This book is very easy and has nothing to do with real GRE exam. I would also recommend to subscribe for some internet quiz to do better on actual test. Good luck everyone!



2. If you're looking for a book to prep you for the quantitative section of the GRE, this workbook by Kaplan is not a comprehensive prep book. I personally found Barron's to be the best guide in helping me with the Math section of the GRE. I bought this book thinking it would a good practice book, but I found it to be average and the practice questions are much easier than the questions I found on the actual GRE.



3. I strongly feel that some of the reviews of this book posted here are too harsh. Judging from a few of the comments, it seems that some might expect this to prepare them for the GRE Math Subject Test - which is very different from this book's intention, which is to prepare one for the math section of the General Test. The level of difficulty of the problems is not too hard - if you're looking to score a 800, this may not be the book for you - but it's perfect for those of us struggling to get over the 650 mark. The practice problems, for the most part, realistically resemble what one might encounter on the acutal test, and there are only a few GRE-tested math subjects that don't appear in this book. In just over a week of studying primarily with this book, I went from practice tests in the mid-600's range to a 720 on the actual test, so it definitely seemed to be a good investment.



4. This one is just, excellent, may I say GRE maths for dummies!!!, having trouble with quantitative section...this is for you



5. BE WARNED THIS BOOK IS NOT COMPRHENSIVE IT DOES NOT CONTAIN EVERYTING YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR THE MATH. I went throught this book thinking im good with math, but when i opened the kaplan premier program (another study guide book I bought)to my surprise there was a whole new section of math that the workbook did not cover such as standard deviation,compound interest, simple interest, permutations, combinations,weight average,new average with deletion,orginal average to find what what has been deleted,sequence. Thse are just a few things not covered in the math workbook.

5 comments about The Field Updated Ed: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe.

1. If you are mildly or even very interested in spiritual or psychic phenomena but always doubtful of the source, you will find confirmation in the scientific studies presented in this book. For me, the ZPF theories even confirm what Buddha said 2500 years ago - that mind preceeds all and everything comes from and returns to emptiness. A tough but exciting read - like a scientific mystery novel.



2. Being an Osteopath I thought it might have been a book on how one might be able to perceive the field. Unfortunately it is more about evidence for the field which is more theoretical than I had hoped for.



3. If you are interested in the future (and we all should be) read this book. It is one of those books that makes you realise that everything you were ever taught at school, and a lot of what you learned after school, was pretty much a waste of time, because life is simply not the way they said (and are still saying today). The Field provides a wealth of scientific evidence that supports a view of life that many people suspect (somewhere deep in their consciousness), but few have been able to put their finger on. The more you understand what is written in this book the more you recognise that society is at a pivotal point, not because of the environmental crisis, nor the financial crisis, nor any global security crises. Radical change is on the horizon because our understanding of life itself is changing. This is the most profound change we can imagine and this is the most exciting time to be alive in the history of human life.



4. Good book, very detailed.
   If your concern is scientific experiments, documented proof and results - this is the one for you.
   If you already believe in the filed and want to learn how top use it - this is not the one for you.



5. With a little imagination and a lot of scientific corroboration, THE FIELD gives a unifying model for life and its relationship with the universe and ultimately with the life force called God.

5 comments about Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses.

1. As a novice at making cheese this book has given me the confidence I needed to give it a try. My daughter and I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon making Mozerella and Ricotta cheeses. The book is great.



2. Thank you for your quick shipment. Book is in great shape, as you stated.



3. As a beginner cheese-maker, I bought this book to learn how to make cheese. Also bought Ricki's 30-min mozzarella kit. Figured I'd start with a basic mozzarella cheese, and it might be tasty with all the tomatoes in my garden. Well, things got a bit complicated.
   
   While there was a lot of useful and interesting info in the book, the directions on how to make this 30-min mozz did not jive with her kit directions, nor did they even jive with the directions offered on her website (and there are two sets of slightly diffeent directions on the site!!). So, four sets of directions, each a little different (including target temperatures!!!), this beginner was frustrated from moment 1.
   
   First batch failed entirely, probably due to the milk used. Bought another brand, dug around in the bin for the freshest one...this time things went better, BUT the curds did NOT form in the time she tells you....nor a half-hr later. Nearly an hour later, got soft curds and was never sure if they were "right"....they seemed too soft. Did manage to make 2 balls of cheese, but they tasted a little cooked.
   
   I wrote to her website asking for help understanding what happened and for process clarification. No response a week later. I also wrote to this guy Steve who has his own cheese making website. He promptly answered, explaining that when he sells the Ricki kit he actually includes HIS OWN DIRECTIONS. Apparently the curd will often take up to an hour to set and tablet rennet (in the kit) can take a bit longer than liquid rennet. He offered a few other notes that very effectively explained what I was experiencing.
   
   I am hesitant to make other cheeses from this book. I will probably compare the recipes/directions in the book vs online just for better understanding before starting the next trial. Part of me regrets this purchase because who needs to do all this homework? Ok, ok, it was just one recipe, but I bought the book thinking it would offer everything I'd need to just get started...and it failed to deliver on the first cheese!



4. I really like this book, it was written for me, someone with no experience making cheese. I will be using it a lot. I have other cheese making books and they are good as well, but this one makes me feel confident I will succeed at making cheese.



5. This is a very good book for aspiring cheese makers. The basics are clearly presented along with recipies and other interesting asides.

5 comments about Rapid Review Pathology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access (Rapid Review).

1. I bought Goljan's RR after having listened to his audio files throughout my M2 year. When it came time to review path for boards I realized I didn't like BRS path. RR has colored pictures, 2 tests at the end of the book (didn't do them, i was using a qbank online by then) and the outline format is great. The wide margins with notes was what I liked best (lots of room for me to write too). Definitely look at a copy before choosing a path review book!



2. I've heard some say this book is too detailed for a quick review, and they would rather stick with FA. They must of missed the memo that in medical school you have to know everything and know it in detail. This book is the real deal. If you know these concepts and can work them from a few angles you will surely do well on the boards. If you just read FA you're in trouble. This book should be mandatory!!! It might take a while to get through some chapters but don't fret, stay persistent and it will all come together. This is BY FAR the best book for review, read it a couple times and do a bunch of questions and you're set.



3. this book is amazing. it's tough for some to get used to the outline format, but once you do, you realize that it covers everything that's important in a very organized, readable fashion. there are good applicable pics and charts, along with big margins to write extra notes in. i wish i used it during my first year of medical school (i got it in the beginning of 2nd year).



4. this book was brand new when I got it in mail. The book is amazing. The delivery was timely as well.



5. Goljan is the man! This book is a must have for med students, espec for board review.

5 comments about How Doctors Think.

1. I am an R.N., and thought I knew how my fellow medical people, the doctors, thought. They acted in unusual ways at times, but I didn't know why. This book is a portal into the ways that the people who hold our lives in their hands, come to some of the decisions that they make. I recommend it highly to all. You don't have to be in it (the medical profession) to be aware. At some time, sooner or later, we and our families and friends become ill. At that time, we all need doctors. It is good to know a little more of their training, and what might make them tick in a certain way. It is well-written, and makes many valid points.



2. The most powerful messages I got from reading Groopman's How Doctors Think are related to his positions on treatment algorithms and practice guidelines and health care quality.
   
   While many medical professionals consider evidence-based medicine the gold standard of medical practice, Groopman expressed his concern about the detrimental effect it has on doctors' ability to think independently and creatively. He reasoned that strictly adhering to algorithms debilitates doctors' ability to think outside the boxes and limit them from taking into consideration the idiosyncrasy of each individual patient.
   
   Groopman also argued that "quality in primary care means much more than using metrics to judge a physician's quality or keeping a scorecard to ensure blood sugar was messaged and a flu shot given." He gave quality of care a new definition: "Quality means thinking broadly, because any and every problem of human biology can present itself; it means making judicious decisions with limited data about children and adults, neither overreacting nor being blasé; it means wielding one's words with precision and with a profound appreciation of the social context of the patients. It means, as a gatekeeper, knowing where to guide us. One of those portals opens to the intensive care unit."
   
   After reading Groopman's viewpoints on evidence-based medicine and quality of care, I can't stop wondering whether the "Pay-for-Performance" program which offers physicians financial incentive for providing "quality of care" based on predefined quality measure target(s) that are in alignment with certain evidence-based clinical guidelines is the direction our nation should follow.
   
   It is disconcerting to find that our current health care reimbursement structure is the hidden cause of some of these cognitive errors. In an era of managed care, many physicians are stretched thin and burned out. They are pushed to see more patients in shorter duration. Under time constraint, physicians are forced to make snap judgment. It is inevitable that they commit cognitive errors or biases (from representative, affective, availability and satisfaction of search error, to confirmation, anchoring and commission bias) because of the time pressure. The cost-driven system also forces them to make decisions based on cost control rather than the best interest of the patients. The fee-for-service payment mechanism reimburses physicians better for procedure rather than consultation, so they will prescribe unnecessary procedure to increase revenue.
   
   Among the many stories in the book that have left lasting impressions on my mind, the one that struck me the most is his narration of his first patient encounter thirty years old on his first day of internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He described himself as an intense, driven student carrying a pack of index cards from medical school in his pocket. During his first encounter of emergency medicine in the "real world," he faced a hypertensive patient with a tear through his aortic valve. He tried to think (and response) but couldn't. He was stunted and paralyzed. In this critical moment when it required his "flesh-and-blood decision-making," he failed to make a prompt response. This reality check taught him that his high grades in medical school were meaningless. The index cards in his pockets were just dead weight. It may be hard to believe, but even people who are highly intelligent (and full of confidence) may have difficulty making prompt decision in split second.
   
   Another story that is as intriguing is the incident in which he failed to ask him to roll over so he could examine his buttocks and rectum simply because he felt for his patient and didn't want to cause him extra suffering. He thought he should have examined him more thoroughly and he berated himself for doing a sloppy job. He learned that "physicians must learn to suppress their emotions, to block their natural reactions to many of the awful things they see and the brutal thing they must do to their patients. They have to detach themselves from anguish that could impede their work." It is important to note how our emotion may impede our work performance.
   
   I highly recommend this book to medical students, residents and medical professionals, who will find in this book many invaluable lessons on how to avoid cognitive errors and biases. I will recommend this book to patients, their families and friends, who will find in this book many helpful tips on helping their physicians avoid cognitive pitfalls.



3. this book review is mostly about me and not about the book's contents, but it is about doctors.
   
   I have gotten some feedback recently, over the last year, implying that I have a tendency to blame doctors for my problems. and I thought about it and I have to admit that is true.
   
   I have various disabilities and etc. my issue in particular is that due to a cognitive impairment, I go through a process of mental churning when I think through things. it is a feeling of dizziness and pressure in my head. and in the past I have fought that in a way that has negatively impacted other people, in this case, doctors. I do feel bad about that and I understand that I will need to be extremely careful.
   
   my husband is the most fair judge of this and he said that I tend to assume I won't be listened to and then panic. and for example, when I was in the hospital, he said that I continued a conversation he and I were having instead of talking to the doctor.
   
   and I thought about it and I have to admit that is true. I do have a tendency to do that. to assume things will go badly and panic.
   
   my concern is that this book is written with the same negative type slant.
   
   after thinking about it for quite some time, I decided I needed to face my fears and so I am working on it. my fear is that doctors are uncaring and threatening.
   
   the problem is, in the many years I've had appointments, is that I have been living out that fear instead of facing it.
   
   I have to admit that I have tended to think quite a bit of other people's perspectives and that has sometimes led me to a tendency to blame them - it is not always instead of taking responsibility, but in addition to it.
   
   and that is really not OK. I am finding it has a bad effect on people, including the doctors I have been seeing in some cases. :(
   
   the problem is I had a brain injury which means my insight and memory are compromised. the difficulty is that I tend to blame doctors in particular, to fill in the gaps of what I do not understand.
   
   I did think about this feedback I received. sometimes I don't think in time to avoid saying stupid things. but I did think about it, b/c it let me know that something is wrong.
   
   it can take me 5 or 6 solid hours of lying down and doing nothing but thinking through an issue like this to get to a conclusion. I believe the moral is that I need to think before I speak, or type. :)
   
   I hope that this way, my fear and anxiety will be less.
   
   I had a doctor's appointment today. I was really nervous but it went very well. I had a lot of fear and the doctor, who was my allergist, was patient and understanding.



4. When we're sick, we want to believe the doctor knows best. With authority and confidence, they assess our symptoms and assign a course of treatment, and we go along, perhaps anxiously but comforted by their wisdom just the same.
   
   In "How Doctors Think," Jerome Groopman (himself an oncologist for decades) reveals how rarely doctors are totally sure of their diagnoses--and how when they are, it may be the biggest problem of all. Doctors, like all of us, are prone to thinking errors; for example, they may jump to the most obvious conclusion, or stop thinking when they find "the answer," or any number of other common pitfalls. But when doctors stop thinking, it can result in harm to the patient. Groopman's book explores how and why these mistakes happen, and the consequences they can have.
   
   Luckily, it's not all bad news: far from trying to cast aspersions on the reliability of the medical profession, Groopman firmly believes that doctors can not only train themselves to avoid thinking errors, patients can help them by asking pointed questions during an exam or follow-up. (Groopman touches on such questions throughout, then summarizes them in a brief epilogue.)
   
   Groopman is undoubtedly a doctor before he is a writer, but his style is good-natured, and a wealth of real-life examples makes his sometimes abstract subject matter engaging. "How Doctors Think" is a sometimes surprising, sometimes disturbing, but ultimately optimistic discussion of the ongoing art form that is modern medicine.
   
   ~



5. As an MD and ocxcasional patient, I think this book is a must for all of us. I gave it out as a present to my MD friends, to my private physician and to a cousin who is a very knowledgeable RN. This book is written with modesty, humor and empathy, things which some of us lack. I am not sure that all lay people will get the gist of it, but I recommend it highly.