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    Incidental Findings

    Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine

    Author Danielle Ofri, MD
    Paperback
    $16.00 US
    Beacon Press
    On sale Apr 01, 2006 | 192 Pages | 9780807072677
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    In Singular Intimacies, which the New England Journal of Medicine said captured the “essence of becoming and being a doctor,” Danielle Ofri led us into the hectic, constantly challenging world of big-city medicine. In Incidental Findings, she’s finished her training and is learning through practice to become a more rounded healer.

    “Ofri, an attending physician at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital and founder of the Bellevue Literary Review, again displays the same sensitivity and carefully crafted writing that distinguished her first medical memoir (Singular Intimacies). The emphasis in these 14 engrossing pieces is on her determination to learn from those she has treated. Ofri begins by recounting a time when the shoe was on the other foot, when she, as a first-time expectant mother, was the patient. After a sonogram, Ofri and her husband were rather casually told that their baby's umbilical cord was missing one artery. Her disorientation and anxiety that day deepened her ability to empathize with those who are ill. In “A Day in the Clinic,” she describes how a language barrier left her unable to effectively comfort an Asian man with a brain tumor. In the especially moving “Terminal Thoughts,” Ofri intuits that a woman’s signature on a Do Not Resuscitate order and her refusal of dialysis were rooted in depression. Ofri reworks her pain medications and extracts a promise that the patient will stay on dialysis. The patient will not be cured, but Ofri’s goal is not to provide happy endings; rather, she aims to wed compassion to medical training and knowledge, to recall her ongoing struggles to understand the sick and to make their lives more bearable.” — Publisher’s Weekly

    “Dr. Ofri, a physician, distills wisdom from the maelstrom of New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in this emotional memoir. In a series of poignant vignettes, the internist grapples with the hearts of the sick, literally and metaphorically. Her patients range from the terminally ill to manipulative hypochondriacs, from veiled Bangladeshi women to convicted felons. A must-read for students of psychology and medicine in need of a lesson in compassion.” –Psychology Today

    “Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician.” –Oliver Sacks
    Dr. Danielle Ofri, author of Singular Intimacies, is an attending physician at Bellevue and the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. She is currently a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and the New England Journal of Medicine.
    Danielle Ofri, MD View titles by Danielle Ofri, MD

    Educator Guide for Incidental Findings

    Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

    (Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

    Read More
    Ofri's thoughtful and honest second book-the title is inspired by her realization, during her own amniocentesis, that conditions that seem minor to doctors are monumental when they happen to you-is equal parts The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Kitchen Confidential.—Nicholas Confessore, New York Times Book Review

    "Dr. Ofri, a physician, distills wisdom from the maelstrom of New York City's Bellevue Hospital in this emotional memoir. In a series of poignant vignettes, the internist grapples with the hearts of the sick, literally and metaphorically. Her patients range from the terminally ill to manipulative hypochondriacs, from veiled Bangladeshi women to convicted felons. A must-read for students of psychology and medicine in need of a lesson in compassion."—Psychology Today

    "Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician."—Oliver Sacks

    "Ofri has so much to say about the remarkable intimacies between doctor and patient and how doctors come to understand their powers and limitations."—Perri Klass

    "[Ofri's] writing tumbles forth with color and emotion . . . An important addition to the literary canon of medicine."—Boston Globe

    "Ofri supported a postgraduate semisabbatical by taking temporary assignments, filling in where needed at a variety of hospitals and clinics as she traveled the country. The experience, originally planned as a quasi vacation to recover from the rigors of medical residency, resulted in much more than she bargained for. Indeed, Ofri learned more-the incidental findings of the title-about the softer emotional underbelly of medicine than she had picked up clinically . . . Good writing + good doctor = good reading."—Booklist

    "Incidental Findings is a beautiful book. Ofri has enough faith in her patients, her profession, and herself to tell it all."—Robert S. Schwartz, M.D., New England Journal of Medicine

    "The writing is engaging, and I highly recommend Incidental Findings to anyone who wants to read a short, well-written, and thought-provoking book."—Jason Chao, Journal of the American Medical Association

    "A pleasure to read, thanks to the author's ability to see her patients as individuals and to form a genuine connection with them."—Kirkus Reviews

    About

    In Singular Intimacies, which the New England Journal of Medicine said captured the “essence of becoming and being a doctor,” Danielle Ofri led us into the hectic, constantly challenging world of big-city medicine. In Incidental Findings, she’s finished her training and is learning through practice to become a more rounded healer.

    “Ofri, an attending physician at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital and founder of the Bellevue Literary Review, again displays the same sensitivity and carefully crafted writing that distinguished her first medical memoir (Singular Intimacies). The emphasis in these 14 engrossing pieces is on her determination to learn from those she has treated. Ofri begins by recounting a time when the shoe was on the other foot, when she, as a first-time expectant mother, was the patient. After a sonogram, Ofri and her husband were rather casually told that their baby's umbilical cord was missing one artery. Her disorientation and anxiety that day deepened her ability to empathize with those who are ill. In “A Day in the Clinic,” she describes how a language barrier left her unable to effectively comfort an Asian man with a brain tumor. In the especially moving “Terminal Thoughts,” Ofri intuits that a woman’s signature on a Do Not Resuscitate order and her refusal of dialysis were rooted in depression. Ofri reworks her pain medications and extracts a promise that the patient will stay on dialysis. The patient will not be cured, but Ofri’s goal is not to provide happy endings; rather, she aims to wed compassion to medical training and knowledge, to recall her ongoing struggles to understand the sick and to make their lives more bearable.” — Publisher’s Weekly

    “Dr. Ofri, a physician, distills wisdom from the maelstrom of New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in this emotional memoir. In a series of poignant vignettes, the internist grapples with the hearts of the sick, literally and metaphorically. Her patients range from the terminally ill to manipulative hypochondriacs, from veiled Bangladeshi women to convicted felons. A must-read for students of psychology and medicine in need of a lesson in compassion.” –Psychology Today

    “Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician.” –Oliver Sacks

    Author

    Dr. Danielle Ofri, author of Singular Intimacies, is an attending physician at Bellevue and the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. She is currently a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and the New England Journal of Medicine.
    Danielle Ofri, MD View titles by Danielle Ofri, MD

    Guides

    Educator Guide for Incidental Findings

    Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

    (Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

    Read More

    Praise

    Ofri's thoughtful and honest second book-the title is inspired by her realization, during her own amniocentesis, that conditions that seem minor to doctors are monumental when they happen to you-is equal parts The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Kitchen Confidential.—Nicholas Confessore, New York Times Book Review

    "Dr. Ofri, a physician, distills wisdom from the maelstrom of New York City's Bellevue Hospital in this emotional memoir. In a series of poignant vignettes, the internist grapples with the hearts of the sick, literally and metaphorically. Her patients range from the terminally ill to manipulative hypochondriacs, from veiled Bangladeshi women to convicted felons. A must-read for students of psychology and medicine in need of a lesson in compassion."—Psychology Today

    "Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician."—Oliver Sacks

    "Ofri has so much to say about the remarkable intimacies between doctor and patient and how doctors come to understand their powers and limitations."—Perri Klass

    "[Ofri's] writing tumbles forth with color and emotion . . . An important addition to the literary canon of medicine."—Boston Globe

    "Ofri supported a postgraduate semisabbatical by taking temporary assignments, filling in where needed at a variety of hospitals and clinics as she traveled the country. The experience, originally planned as a quasi vacation to recover from the rigors of medical residency, resulted in much more than she bargained for. Indeed, Ofri learned more-the incidental findings of the title-about the softer emotional underbelly of medicine than she had picked up clinically . . . Good writing + good doctor = good reading."—Booklist

    "Incidental Findings is a beautiful book. Ofri has enough faith in her patients, her profession, and herself to tell it all."—Robert S. Schwartz, M.D., New England Journal of Medicine

    "The writing is engaging, and I highly recommend Incidental Findings to anyone who wants to read a short, well-written, and thought-provoking book."—Jason Chao, Journal of the American Medical Association

    "A pleasure to read, thanks to the author's ability to see her patients as individuals and to form a genuine connection with them."—Kirkus Reviews

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