Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions

Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions by Gerd Gigerenzer Max Planck Institute For Human Development)

How eliminating risk illiteracy among doctors and patients will lead to better health care decision making.

Contrary to popular opinion, one of the main problems in providing uniformly excellent health care is not lack of money but lack of knowledge--on the part of both doctors and patients. The studies in this book show that many doctors and most patients do not understand the available medical evidence. Both patients and doctors are risk illiterate--frequently unable to tell the difference between actual risk and relative risk. Further, unwarranted disparity in treatment decisions is the rule rather than the exception in the United States and Europe. All of this contributes to much wasted spending in health care.

The contributors to Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions investigate the roots of the problem, from the emphasis in medical research on technology and blockbuster drugs to the lack of education for both doctors and patients. They call for a new, more enlightened health care, with better medical education, journals that report study outcomes completely and transparently, and patients in control of their personal medical records, not afraid of statistics but able to use them to make informed decisions about their treatments.

Gerd Gigerenzer ist Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung in Berlin; Zeno G. Swijtink ist Professor fur Philosophie an der Sonoma State University; Theodore M. Porter ist Professor fur Geschichte an der University of California, Los Angeles. Lorraine Daston ist Direktorin am Max-Planck-Institut fur Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin; John Beatty ist Professor fur Geschichte der Wissenschaft und Technologie an der University of Minnesota. Lorenz Kruger war bis zu seinem Tod Professor fur Philosophie an der Universitat Gottingen.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262016032
ISBN 10	0262016036
Title	Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions
Author	Gerd Gigerenzer Max Planck Institute For Human Development)
Series	Strüngmann Forum Reports
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2011-03-25
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable