Author Dr. Neil J. Farber – Treating a Broken System

It's Health Literacy Month, and today is publication day for the book, "Treating a Broken System: A Physician's Cure for the Healthcare Crisis."

Retired physician and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine Dr. Neil J. Farber joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio to talk about why he wrote the book and what he believes it will take to fix the way patients, physicians, and healthcare administrators work together.

After decades of teaching communication to physicians, Dr. Farber became a patient himself and saw the healthcare crisis from the other side. In this conversation he explains why you keep getting asked the same questions at every visit, how electronic records, patient portals, and AI note-taking are changing the workload for doctors, and why he calls the pressure on physicians "assembly line medicine."

You'll also hear practical tips you can use right away: bring a list of your concerns, bring someone with you or ask to have them join by phone or Zoom, record the visit, and look for a physician who practices shared decision making. Dr. Farber also describes a Mayo Clinic approach in which administrators listen to physicians and give them the authority to fix their own workload, and a Valley fever story that shows why curiosity about the whole person helps both doctors and patients.

Dr. Farber says the book is for patients, physicians, and administrators, and Lisa adds caregivers and families to that list. He is donating his book profits to charity.

Get the book & learn more: https://neiljfarber.com/  More from Big Blend Radio: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/