Since I don’t have the books around me, I’ll have to write from memory without specific source. It might have been Decisive but I’m not sure.
In the book the authors described the problem of physicians leading patient’s questions like with the complaint “my stomach hurts” they ask “does it hurt here?” pointing to where they feel the pain should be located. The patient, intimidated by the professional in front of them, affirms the question without supplying the information that it also hurts elsewhere. This is not yet a problem of vocabulary, but nonetheless important to keep in mind. The more interesting example was of an old man that described his problem as “feeling dizzy”, so physicians tried to treat him for the syndromes that typically occur at higher ages. After some time a physician actually asked him “when do you feel dizzy?”, receiving the answer “I feel dizzy all the time, when I get up, when I stand in the kitchen, when I read my newspaper.” Turns out what this patient described as “being dizzy” was more something along the lines of “feeling confused” and was a symptom of a as-of-yet undiagnosed depression over his late wife’s passing.
The whole episode could have been avoided if the patient knew how to correctly describe his issue—and if the pphysicians were more conscientious in diagnosing a specific issue.
Learning that there a qualia of “being dizzy” and a qualia of “feeling confused” and learning being able to distinguish those two qualia’s isn’t easy, if you don’t have those qualia in the first place.
Words are cheap once you have the qualia.
Most people have fairly little awareness of what goes on inside their own body. Furthermore these days most doctors also lack the ability to perceive that information kinesthetically but focus on various tests and verbal feedback.
Practically it’s also important to think about what information a doctor actually needs. That means who have to know what’s normal and how you deviate from that.
Since I don’t have the books around me, I’ll have to write from memory without specific source. It might have been Decisive but I’m not sure.
In the book the authors described the problem of physicians leading patient’s questions like with the complaint “my stomach hurts” they ask “does it hurt here?” pointing to where they feel the pain should be located. The patient, intimidated by the professional in front of them, affirms the question without supplying the information that it also hurts elsewhere. This is not yet a problem of vocabulary, but nonetheless important to keep in mind. The more interesting example was of an old man that described his problem as “feeling dizzy”, so physicians tried to treat him for the syndromes that typically occur at higher ages. After some time a physician actually asked him “when do you feel dizzy?”, receiving the answer “I feel dizzy all the time, when I get up, when I stand in the kitchen, when I read my newspaper.” Turns out what this patient described as “being dizzy” was more something along the lines of “feeling confused” and was a symptom of a as-of-yet undiagnosed depression over his late wife’s passing.
The whole episode could have been avoided if the patient knew how to correctly describe his issue—and if the pphysicians were more conscientious in diagnosing a specific issue.
Learning that there a qualia of “being dizzy” and a qualia of “feeling confused” and learning being able to distinguish those two qualia’s isn’t easy, if you don’t have those qualia in the first place.
Words are cheap once you have the qualia.
Most people have fairly little awareness of what goes on inside their own body. Furthermore these days most doctors also lack the ability to perceive that information kinesthetically but focus on various tests and verbal feedback.
Practically it’s also important to think about what information a doctor actually needs. That means who have to know what’s normal and how you deviate from that.