A guide for everyone involved in medical decision making to plot a clear course through complex and conflicting benefits and risks.

We've all been there, sittinguncomfortably in a paper gownas a doctor impassively describesour prognosis. Sometimes it's simple andtreatable. Other times we get

Decision making is a key activity, perhaps the most important activity, in the practice of healthcare. Although physicians acquire a great deal of knowledge and

On average, a physician will interrupt a patient describing her symptoms within eighteen seconds. In that short time, many doctors decide on the likely diagnosi

Drs. Groopman and Hartzband reveal a clear path for making the right medical choices. Such factors as authority figures, statistics, other patients' stories, te