Vital Conversations: Improving Communication Between Doctors and Patients

265 Pages·2014·4.924 MB·English

by  Dennis Rosen

V C
ITAL ONVERSATIONS

V
ITAL

C
ONVERSATIONS
IMPROVING
COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN DOCTORS
AND PATIENTS
DENNIS ROSEN, MD
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosen, Dennis, 1967– author.
Vital conversations : improving communication between doctors and patients /
Dennis Rosen.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16444-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53804-6 (e-book)
I. Title
[DNLM: 1. Physician-Patient Relations. 2. Communications.
3. Patient Satisfaction. W 62]
R727.3
610.69'6—dc23
2014003433
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design: Mary Ann Smith
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
To Vered, Yuval, Hadas, and Avigail,
with much love, appreciation, and pride.
(cid:2)

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Author’s Note xiii
1 BETTER OUTCOMES, LOWER COSTS 1
2 ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL 31
3 WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE 51
4 DISEASE, ILLNESS, AND SICKNESS 81
5 BODY AND SOUL 115
6 RECONCILING DIFFERENT WORLDVIEWS 141
7 MAKING IT STICK 161
8 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
CREATING A BETTER CLINICAL ENCOUNTER 191
Notes 215
Index 237

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
HIS BOOK could not have been written without the help of
so many along the way.
First off, I would like to thank some of the many people
who have enabled me to channel my passion for the writ-
ten word and to make the transition from passive consumer into an
active producer. Thank you to the editors at Psychology Today for giving
me the opportunity to blog about pediatric sleep and other topics on
their website. Thank you, too, to the editors at the various newspa-
pers, magazines, and journals whose receptiveness to my writing in the
forms of essays, op-ed pieces, and book reviews was key to encour-
aging me to persevere along this path: John Zeller at the Journal of
the American Medical Association; Shelly Cohen at the Boston Herald;
Mary Duenwald, Honor Jones, Sewell Chan, David Corcoran, Alex
Star, and David Kelly at the New York Times; Nicole Lamy and Paul
Makishima at the Boston Globe; Michael Todd and Tom Jacobs at the
Pacific Standard; Barbara Sibbald at the Canadian Medical Association
Journal; Lee Brown at the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine; and Elleke
Bal and Babette Dunkelgrun at Ode.
Ethan, Molly, Liz, Donna, Alice, and Amy, whom I met at Grub
Street in Boston—an outstanding resource for writers at any stage of
their careers—helped me hone my writing and encouraged me to per-
severe even as the rejections kept coming in hard and fast. A big Thank