Why it's important to get your medical information from medical professionals

Jennifer Ashton, MD, discusses the concept behind her new book. She discusses patients trying to think like doctors to manage their healthcare.

Transcript

00:00

You know, when I wrote the book it was really to help people not understand a fact that we might learn

00:06

tomorrow is different, but really how to think like a doctor so that they can, you know,

00:12

survive this pandemic because we're learning every single day different things. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:25

You have written a new book. And it's actually quite-- quite excellent. Let's talk about the processing of this pandemic.

00:33

We're still very much in it, that's for sure. And we're in the middle of processing what's happened and what's happening.

00:40

But there's really a lot to reflect on. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? I think it's important to remind people--

00:47

for those who don't know that when we go to medical school, we have to learn every organ system.

00:53

We have to learn every specialty. And in my specialty, my medical specialty, probably 25% of it

00:59

on any given day happens to be in the field of infectious disease. You know, when I wrote the book it, was really to help people not understand a fact that we might

01:08

learn tomorrow is different, but really how to think like a doctor so that they can, you know,

01:15

survive this pandemic because we're learning every single day different things. And it's not that, you know, oops, we were wrong,

01:23

it's that in medicine and science we continue learning. And a scientific mind is an open mind.

01:29

And so we have to be able to adapt and pivot, et cetera. And so that's what I tried to do in the book. That's excellent.

01:35

I think you put that into perspective well. The strain coronavirus was not unknown to any physician

01:41

before this pandemic started. I also explain in my book, "The New Normal", why people

01:48

and how people can interpret medical headlines. And that's a big part of it. [MUSIC PLAYING]