THE ACTIVE PATIENT'S GUIDE TO BETTER MEDICAL CARE

Stanley Sagov is a young doctor in family practice--with the Harvard Health Services--who believes that the more cooperation and communication between doctor and patient, the better the medical care. He writes with insight into the patient's needs and wants. After discussing how to go about choosing a doctor (he recommends a screening interview in which the prospective patient asks about fees, assesses attitudes, etc.), he describes how best to use your and the doctor's time. This includes the careful reporting of history and symptoms. Most illuminating are the dialogues he recounts between himself and his patients. Some have had sorry experiences with specialists, others had complicated problems that led to misdiagnoses. Sagov does not spare himself as a source of error, which makes him all the more human. As a physician trained in Family Practice, he is biased in favor of this ""specialty"" as opposed to the endless proliferation of single-organ specialists. He also advocates prepaid health insurance as the most desirable way of maximizing health care throughout society. Neither polemic nor panacea, Sagov's account addresses itself to the broad class of patients who increasingly realize that they have the right and the responsibility to take an active role in their own health care.