I suffer from a rare chronic illness and went through nearly half a decade of frustrated and sometimes hostile doctors before finally receiving a definitive diagnosis. Reading this book gave me great insight into why many of my doctors were so frustrated with the fact that I had obvious symptoms, obviously skewed bloodwork, but no obvious cause. It is disheartening to realize how rampant sexism is in the medical profession, even when it comes to viewing patients, but this book gives some valuable lessons in how to navigate the theoretical medical minefield.

For most of this book, a more appropriate though slightly more sensationalistic title would be, "How Doctors and Hospitals Make Mistakes". The author in a large section of chapters interviews various generalists and specialists, as well as drawing from his own experience as a patient, and largely focuses on how things are under or overdiagnosed (up to fifteen percent of the time in some cases, performed by superbly trained individuals). The author is sober in his judgement, and does a good job being neither overly condemning American medicine or being too defensive. There are small sections on other factors as well, such as the influence of money on medicine , well covered in other books, or patient-doctor relationship communication, but the main thrust is the concept of misdiagnosis, which is well worth the time and energy reading.

It was simply very interesting to read how a doctor navigated their own medical problems. To learn how many different opinions there were, and how someone who could actually weigh those differing opinions, considered their options.

Which presents the problem: how do we laymen weigh those differing opinions. Dr. Groopman presents solutions to that question, all the while giving you a fuller perspective on what the title promises.

There is also careful criticism of how medicine is conducted which is important for everyone involved in medicine to ponder.