Less Medicine, More Health : : 7 Assumptions That Drive too Much Medical Care

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Call Number: 362.1 We
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	362.1 We	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Eat smart, exercise regularly, and get routine health screenings," the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advises the public in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And that is absolutely true - except for the checkup part. The American public has been sold the idea that seeking medical care is one of the most important steps to maintain wellness. However, surprisingly, medical care is not in fact well correlated with good health. The major determinants of health are outside individual medical care. Dr. Gilbert Welch pushes against established wisdom, and suggests that medical care may be too aggressive. From his twenty-five years of medical practice and research, Welch explains that excessive medical care is often powered by economics and lawyers. But American medical care would not exist in this state if the general public did not harbor powerful assumptions about the value of tests and treatments - a number of which are just plain wrong. "-- Provided by publisher.

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Enlightening submitted by lballard on August 6, 2015, 9:02am Started reading this book with a lot of skepticism. I was pleasantly surprised. He analyzes what treatments actually increase positive outcomes, and which really don't. He includes the cost of worry, and false positives in this. He also points out that we as doctors don't always know what individual patients value. It was enlightening to see the evidence from studies that showed what percentage of patients would prefer a higher risk of a bad outcome to be able to have care close to home. It also made me understand my husband's parents health decisions better. It's written for non health care professionals so some of the medical information and studies may be a bit dull to people with that background. Still, overall I would highly recommend it.