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Snowball in a blizzard : a physician's notes on uncertainty in medicine / Steven Hatch, MD.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2016]Copyright date: �2016Description: xv, 293 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780465050642
  • 0465050646
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- Primum non nocere : the motivations and hazards of overdiagnosis -- Vignette : the perils of predictive value -- Snowball in a blizzard -- The pressures of managing pressure -- Lyme's false prophets : chronic fatigue, tick-borne illness, and the overselling of certainty -- The origins of knowledge and the seeds of uncertainty -- The correlation/causation problem, or why dark chocolate may not lower your risk of heart failure -- "Health watch" : hype, hysteria, and the media's overconfident march of progress -- Conclusion : the conversation -- Appendix. A very nonmathematical description of statistical significance.
Summary: "Diagnoses are often just educated guesses, and prognoses less certain still. There is a significant amount of uncertainty in the daily practice of medicine, resulting in confusion and potentially deadly complications. Dr. Steven Hatch argues that instead of ignoring this uncertainty, we should embrace it. By digging deeply into a number of rancorous controversies, from breast cancer screening to blood pressure management, Hatch shows us how medicine can fail--sometimes spectacularly--when patients and doctors alike place too much faith in modern medical technology."--Dust jacket.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 616.075 H361 Available 33111008149235
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

There's a running joke among radiologists: finding a tumor in a mammogram is akin to finding a snowball in a blizzard. A bit of medical gallows humor, this simile illustrates the difficulties of finding signals (the snowball) against a background of noise (the blizzard). Doctors are faced with similar difficulties every day when sifting through piles of data from blood tests to X-rays to endless lists of patient symptoms.

Diagnoses are often just educated guesses, and prognoses less certain still. There is a significant amount of uncertainty in the daily practice of medicine, resulting in confusion and potentially deadly complications. Dr. Steven Hatch argues that instead of ignoring this uncertainty, we should embrace it. By digging deeply into a number of rancorous controversies, from breast cancer screening to blood pressure management, Hatch shows us how medicine can fail-sometimes spectacularly-when patients and doctors alike place too much faith in modern medical technology. The key to good health might lie in the ability to recognize the hype created by so many medical reports, sense when to push a physician for more testing, or resist a physician's enthusiasm when unnecessary tests or treatments are being offered.

Both humbling and empowering, Snowball in a Blizzard lays bare the inescapable murkiness that permeates the theory and practice of modern medicine. Essential reading for physicians and patients alike, this book shows how, by recognizing rather than denying that uncertainty, we can all make better health decisions.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-273) and index.

Introduction -- Primum non nocere : the motivations and hazards of overdiagnosis -- Vignette : the perils of predictive value -- Snowball in a blizzard -- The pressures of managing pressure -- Lyme's false prophets : chronic fatigue, tick-borne illness, and the overselling of certainty -- The origins of knowledge and the seeds of uncertainty -- The correlation/causation problem, or why dark chocolate may not lower your risk of heart failure -- "Health watch" : hype, hysteria, and the media's overconfident march of progress -- Conclusion : the conversation -- Appendix. A very nonmathematical description of statistical significance.

"Diagnoses are often just educated guesses, and prognoses less certain still. There is a significant amount of uncertainty in the daily practice of medicine, resulting in confusion and potentially deadly complications. Dr. Steven Hatch argues that instead of ignoring this uncertainty, we should embrace it. By digging deeply into a number of rancorous controversies, from breast cancer screening to blood pressure management, Hatch shows us how medicine can fail--sometimes spectacularly--when patients and doctors alike place too much faith in modern medical technology."--Dust jacket.

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