Diagnosis and Risk Management in Primary Care : Words That Count, Numbers That Speak

Radcliffe Publishing Ltd, 2011 PB, 190pp, £26.59 978-1846194771 ![][1] As medical students we have the privilege of observing how different doctors build up therapeutic and working relationships. The Editor’s Briefing in last September’s BJGP suggested that current medical students do not have the ‘faintest idea about how firms, departments, and hospitals work’.1 This book by Treasure addresses some of these issues and asks us to examine how the GP works. Treasure challenges us to consider the current approach to medical training. At the end of each chapter he provides exercises for the reader to reflect on their own practice and we found these useful for our own training. The book covers many aspects of the biopsychosocial consultation, diagnosis, and the future of health services. Treasure assists us in challenging the fuzziness that he refers to in ‘the distinction between what we should be doing’ and ‘whether we are doing the right thing’. He examines how evidence, technology, and research can be … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif