Description
"The fundamental deception of medicine is the notion that doctors have special healing powers," writes Thomas A. Preston, M.D. in a revised and updated edition of his provocative analysis of the doctor-patient relationship. Here he challenges the prevailing myth of physicians' omnipotence, which has led the medical community to neglect patients' rights to understand and participate in their own treatment; to routinely overtest, overtreat, and overcharge; and to hinder the progress of medical care despite dramatic improvements in surgical techniques and drug therapy. Beginning with a social history of medicine, Dr. Preston uses case histories and discussion of timely issues to illustrate the progressive deterioration of the doctor-patient relationship, and succeeds in educating patients and doctors in their mutual rights and responsibilities. When the role of caring is properly under- stood, curing can be most effective.
THOMAS A. PRESTON, M.D. is Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, Director of Cardiology at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and Fellow of the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology. His book Coronary Artery Surgery: A Critical Review has been acclaimed as a major contribution to the debate over the role of technology in medicine.
ISBN:068418639X
