A 70 year old patient of mine called to ask if he should have an arthroscopy for arthritis of his knee. What does he need to know to decide? What would you do with the information in this table? Here is a PAPER Here is another PAPER
Arthroscopy for knee pain. Read More »
A 61 year old woman was advised to switch from tamoxifen to an aromatase inhibitor (AI) 3 years after starting tamoxifen for hormone receptor positive breast cancer. She asked for a second opinion. This is a common question. Here is the data. What would you do knowing this information? Here is a PAPER.
Switch from tamoxifen to AI? Read More »
A 59 year old woman, during routine follow up care for her breast cancer, was asked to consider taking another chemotherapy drug. This surprised her as she had completed a full year of chemotherapy just 2 years earlier. What does she need to know to consider adding another chemotherapy drug? Here is a PAPER
Added drug for HER2 breast cancer? Read More »
A 72 year old man asks if he should continue with prostate cancer screening using a PSA test. What does he need to know to make this decision? Here is the PAPER:
Screen for prostate cancer? Read More »
A man making a decision to have a shingles vaccine told me that his physician said the vaccine would reduce his chance of shingles by 50%. But, 50% of what? What does 50% really mean? To become a medical decision maker, you must understand numbers. But, numbers can either confuse or enlighten depending how they are communicated.
The “theory of relativity” for decision makers. Read More »
This book is a tribute to memory. We live fully through our memories and recounting tells others who we are. Also, by recounting memories we share intimately with others. I hope my book encourages you to remember and share your fondest memories. We are all soulmates via the sharing of memories.
The Immortality of Memory Read More »
“In nearly every medical-decision-making encounter, the physician is at the center of the discussion, with the patient the recipient of the physician’s decisions. Dr. Robert Alan McNutt starts from a very different premise: the patient should be at the center. McNutt challenges the physician-directed, medical-expertise model of making decisions, presenting a practical approach augmented by
Your Health. Your Decisions. Read More »
Making a diagnosis is a process of managing uncertainty. When we are ill, our body responds with “symptoms and signs”. A symptom is a tangible feeling such as pain. A sign is a detectable physical alteration. The body is wonderfully complex in function (biochemistry, pathology, embryology, genetics, for examples) but relatively limited in how it
Diagnosis; chapter 1 Read More »
I have been warned; trying to help people become better diagnosticians may be a fool’s errand. The primary expertise of a physician, after all, resides in their ability to diagnose a malady that causes your complaints. I claim, and my first book directly addresses, that the best decision maker for treatments is you; you are
Diagnosis; introduction Read More »
A patient asks if she should have bilateral mastectomy for her Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS). What do you think the patient must know to make this decision? Here is a PAPER:
Bilateral mastectomy for DCIS? Read More »
