Here is a link to a review of this book:
http://booksandideas.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/nyh/

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Product Description

For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.
The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today. While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #576140 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 344 pages

Review

"Dr. Klitzman has captured masterfully what 'sick' doctors hide not only from others but from themselves--their fears, hopes, practical strategies of survival in their jobs and families, and--most powerfully, their 'unscientific' approach to the world of the spirit. The descriptions are rich, deep, sad, funny, and powerful. Klitzman has done a marvelous job in painting the portrait of 'the wounded healer'--the person within each of us doctors. To learn that the suffering of illness can lead a doctor toward more mutual, compassionate connection with patients is an affirming, even redeeming moment."--Dr. Samuel Shem, author of The House of God, Mount Misery, and Bill W. and Dr. Bob
"Who heals the healers? We all benefit from the answer."--Mehmet Oz, author of You: The Owner's Manual
"Seneca famously said, 'The wounded doctor heals best,' and Robert Klitzman's beautifully researched and intimate book examines this idea. He combines his own experience as physician and patient with in-depth interviews with a fantastic array of ailing doctors. As it turns out, doctors can be disadvantaged by the anxiety attached to mortality, but they can also grow and transform themselves when they know both sides of the medical equation."--Andrew Solomon, author of Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
"A comprehensive and deeply empathetic study of the wounded healer as patient, colleague, and person."--Peter D. Kramer, author of Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind and Listening to Prozac
"Dr. Robert Klitzman, himself a physician who has faced serious illness, gives a fascinating 360 degree portrait of what happens when those charged with healing others unexpectedly find themselves in the vulnerable role of patient."--Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
"Anyone in healthcare will be moved and benefit immensely from this book. The author is a compassionate and well read clinician of both psychiatry and of the human spirit...Every chapter is engaging...This is recommended reading for everyone in healthcare. This is one of the best books of the year."--Doody's
"Klitzman...is part of a contemporary group of reflective doctors who, through their writings, contribute to the less palpable but nevertheless crucial moral, social, and experiential dimensions of medicine."--British Medical Journal
"A great strength of the book lies in the richness of the patients' words, through which the reader learns firsthand that illness is transforming and that 'human lives are messy and complex.'"--New England Journal of Medicine
"Klitzman's work is an important contribution to physical training and patient care. The wisdom shared in When Doctors Become Patients holds potential to make all physicians better caregivers."--JAMA
"This is a thoughtful and carefully written book. Read it. You will not come away unaffected."--Journal of Clinical Investigation
"[Klitzman] interviewed more than 50 doctors who suffered from such diseases as HIV, Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast cancer, bipolar disorder and leukemia. Identified only by pseudonyms, they bared their souls to Klitzman. The result is a remarkable book,When Doctors Become Patients, which helps illuminate the medical profession's mind-set under duress."--The Associated Press

About the Author
Robert Klitzman is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University.

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Customer Reviews

Not for the medico-phobes
This book is dangerous for a medico-phobe like me. I avoid doctors. The only medication in our house is for the dog.


I was expecting a book in the style of Atul Gawande or Jerome Groopman -- a novelistic style that's an easy read. Instead Klitzman writes in a scholarly style, so the book reads like a sociology research paper. That's not necessarily bad, but unfortunately might deter some readers. And that would be a shame, because we all need to read this book.

Frankly, it's scary. Doctors are shocked to realize how error-prone the system can be. They probably identify errors that the rest of us won't even notice. They get caught up in the indignities and hassles of medical treatment. And for the most part, they're surprised.

What surprised me was the passivity of some of the doctors. One woman wrote about a female medical resident who was in way over her head. She refused to call for help, saying, "I'm the doctor." The nurses finally intervened, brushing the resident aside and carrying out the appropriate procedures.

Why didn't this doctor-patient report the resident to the hospital board? That resident is a danger to every patient she encounters.

Other doctors admit they fall into the role of trying to please their doctors, thereby giving up on honest communication.

A major missing component to this book is a section on implications for ordinary non-doctor patients. Klitzman does include a few pages with the subtitle 'Lessons for Patients" but it's not really helpful.

I become extremely frustrated with the advice to remember that doctors are "only human." If they want us to see them as fallible mortals, they can't get away with acting arrogant, keeping people waiting and dismissing pain ("It's all in your mind" or "It doesn't really hurt").

Hopefully doctors are becoming more humane as well as human, as the lessons of this book will be taught in medical schools. Hopefully the next generation won't turn so many of us into medico-phobes.

Interesting
The book puts a human perspective to physicians, giving the reader a better understanding of the tolls and dysfunctions that come with the job.

It was interesting to read how physicians changed as practitioners once they experienced being a patient first hand. Equally interesting how physicians used their status to obtain better care within the system.

Making Doctors Human
At last, a book that shows that doctors do have hearts, can be compassionate, and why that matters. One cannot wish illness on every doctor, but one can wish every doctor would read this book -- and patients, too. Written with grace, wit and honesty, this is a beautiful and important book.