Since our family has had much more face time, email time, phone time, and hospital time with doctors in the past year than I ever could have hoped for, I've developed a new appreciation for good doctors and nurses and they work they do.
My greatest criticism in our medical voyage has been that doctors only seemed to be treating the numbers of my daughter's tests. I worried they weren't treating my daughter---just treating to the numbers. This is a big theme of the book: what criteria doctors use to make decisions.
The book isn't meant to be an expose of doctors, just an examination of doctors doing what they can. The message of the book is: doctors are doing the best they can. Patients are doing the best they can. Modern medicine is doing well, but can do better. We can all do better.
A good book if you are interested in the subject.
And . . . I must make one more comment before I venture off. Groopman was ruthless in his examination of drug salesman. I relished his comments, having met many a tight-bodiced, cleavage-showing, perfumed drug saleslady, as well as many slick, shiny-shoed, sweet-talking drug salesman man during my time working in a doctor's office. I'm sure there are some drug salespeople who have integrity and make an honest living and are good at what they do. I just think the whole drug manufacturing business is crooked. Like health insurance companies, it makes money on people who are vulnerable because of illness or circumstance. Groopman and me: we have little tolerance for this.
It was enough to read the book and find a kindred spirit in Groopman, who sliced and diced the drug reps and their industry. But that was just a sliver of the book. The rest of it was worth reading as well.
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