cover image Taking Charge of Your Medical Fate

Taking Charge of Your Medical Fate

Lawrence C. Horowitz. Random House (NY), $18.95 (319pp) ISBN 978-0-394-56336-7

This expose and guidebook, credited by Edward Kennedy for having saved his son's life, explores the wide variegation in quality of our health care and prescribes methods to secure the best. Drawing from extended inspections of medical facilities across the country, Horowitz, former staff director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health, specifies what to look for in choosing a physician, surgeon or specialist as to skills, record, clinical judgment and university affiliations, and how to assess hospitals. Above all, Horowitz urges patients to ask questions, and to switch doctors if not given answers or allowed to make decisions after review of options. He maintains the patient should assume a major role in deciding the need for and type of treatment, especially in life-threatening conditions and in some cases urges consultation, even by phone, with experts or clinical researchers in the area of the particular disease. The author concludes with a discussion of AIDS and appendices listing hospital mortality rates, research and medical resources, along with cancer therapy options. 40,000 first printing; first serial to McCalls and Woman's Day; author tour. (September)