Mukherjee's "The Laws of Medicine" (2015)

[Hazelgreen]

Best521 strongly recommended Dr. Mukherjee's latest book, "The Song of the Cell". I looked up the reference, and ended up ordering all four of his books. I am currently reading his tiny, 70-page, "The Laws of Medicine", and thought some of you would be interested in his "three principles that govern modern medicine":

1. A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test.

2. "Normals" teach us rules; "outliers" teach us laws.

3. For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias.

Dr. Mukherjee concludes, "...decision making in the face of uncertain, inaccurate, and imperfect information, remains absolutely vital to the life of medicine." I think what he may be saying is that patients are individuals about whom doctors know very little. Still, doctors must make decisions about each individual's care.

We patients may simply need to accept the limitations of this imperfect approach. Of course, we may choose to make any modifications we intuitively think will suit our individual uniqueness better, but that decision is ours alone.

[Bettybuckets]

hi Hazel- thanks for writing all the info. I loved his book and will look into the others.

[queeneee]

I have been getting 'better' decisions from my onc. since I asked him if he had read 'Winnie the Pooh'? He said he had. I replied - Do you know Eeyore? He is slow moving, depressed, stays in his hut and things don't change quickly with him? He nodded. I said - well I am a Tigger, I react quickly and am sensitive to medicines, I am good at the sprint, but find the marathon harder. I bounce back pretty quickly if not overwhelmed, and drugs move out of my system quickly because I am usually bouncing about... He often makes reference to my tiggerishness and I think he makes more suitable decisions for me, having that reference point.

[Hazelgreen in reply to queeneee]

I much enjoyed your self-depiction, Queenee! I think I might be more like Winnie when interacting with the medical community...a goofy, I'm okay smile. It's only when I'm home again that the scientist in me comes out.

[Best521]

Thanks Hazelgreen. I will have to buy the Laws of Medicine. Loved his comment “A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test”. How many times have we all experienced that to be true? Especially when it comes to MBC treatment.

[Hazelgreen in reply to Best521]

He gives a case where it was more than an "intuition", but rather what he also refers to as "prior knowledge".

[PJBinMI]

I've read two of his books and loved them! He writes so beautifully and weaves "rules" with stories of patients. I'll be ordering his latest, too.

[diamags]

I love him. I've read The Emporer of all Maladys and The Gene and will order the other two right now. He is both brilliant and insightful.