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February 11, 2004:
The Complexity Of Making Medical Decisions
Interview
with Cole Giller author of Port
In The Storm
Mike
Carruthers:
It used to be that when faced with a medical decision you'd go
to the doctor and follow whatever advice he gave.
Cole
Giller:
It is no longer that way; the options are very complex, there
are more treatments, more diagnoses.
Neurosurgeon
Dr. Cole Giller , author of the book Port
In The Storm...
What
that means is the doctor doesn't know which exact option is
best for each patient, and so the patient faces a complex decision
almost alone.
And so as
patients it's important that we get involved in making our own
medical decisions…
For example,
I see patients with malignant brain tumors and there are many
options available, there are surgical options, there's chemotherapy,
there's all sorts of different types of radiation, and the best
I can do is tell them the pros and cons. The doctor really doesn't
know enough to say this is the absolute thing you must do.
And a lot
of it has to do with personal preferences and values.
For example,
I have patients with tremor, horrible hand tremor, for some
people that's very socially isolating, it becomes a very significant
problem, even though it's not life threatening. So for that
group of people brain surgery to fix the tremor makes a whole
lot of sense. There are other people, for example, people who
live on a farm are relatively isolated, or who aren't involved
in social activities, tremor may not mean much to them, and
that operation to fix it might be pointless. So the whole difference
lies in the meaning, the individual meaning of each of those
choices.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net,
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's something you should know.
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