YOU: The Smart Patient

(Free Press, 2006) is a witty and fun-to-read handbook offering a wealth of information on how to become your own medical detective and how to find the best medical care. Best-selling authors Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. partnered with The Joint Commission to write YOU: The Smart Patient: An Insider’s Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment. The Joint Commission is an agency that gives what amounts to a report card to care providers that want to give the best and safest health care.

The Joint Commission used to tell hospitals and other providers when its agents were going to visit and “survey” them. In an effort to be more relevant and effective, the surveyors now show up unannounced. Their rules cover medications, surgery, patient safety, cleanliness, and so on.

Just to give an idea of the tone of the book, in the authors’ note, they say, “Mike Roizen is an internist and anesthesiologist; the latter are renowned for practicing their specialty by sitting on a stool and passing gas to patients.” The book is illustrated with cartoons throughout, including caricatures of members of the health care community. Frequently, there are tongue-in-cheek exaggerations of shortcomings in the health care system. All of this, the authors explain, is for the purpose of bringing their points out in a memorable way – points that will help make a smart patient.

The book starts off with a “Smart Patient Quiz,” a 40 question test with questions like “what is the most germ-ridden object in the hospital room?” and “where should you sit in the ER waiting room?” The answers to the 40 questions are all explained throughout the book’s 10 chapters.

A lengthy appendix gives contact information for all of the state boards of pharmacies, medical licensing boards, and specialty boards. In the chapter on Second Opinions, there is a superb list of the best health websites on the internet. The book’s goal is to create more smart patients. “To be a smart patient, you can’t be passive; you need to be a first-rate Sherlock Holmes on your problem-solving medical team. Like Holmes, smart patients ask intelligent questions and have the instincts (and the guts) to politely challenge things they don’t understand.”

YOU: The Smart Patient is a handy tool for anyone wanting to learn more about how to navigate the health care system.

Find this and other “healthy” topics in the Regency Library. (863) 294-7020.