Remember me
BOOK REVIEW
Year : 2022 | Volume
: 35
| Issue : 3 | Page : 115-116
Physician, Watch Thyself! witty lessons on shitty ailments of a dutch general practitioner
Karen Peters
Book and Multi-Media Editor, Education for Health, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Correspondence Address:
Karen Peters
University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
USA
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
CheckDOI: 10.4103/efh.efh_44_23
Book Name : Physician, watch thyself! Witty lessons on shitty ailments of a Dutch general practitioner
Author : Pieter van den Hombergh
Publisher : Yes! Press, Cape Town, South Africa
Edition : First Edition
Number of Pages : 157
Year of Publication : 2022
ISBN 13 : 9789090362717
The author Pieter van den Hombergh, a now recently retired family physician and “tropical doctor” from the Netherlands, recently published (2022) a semi-autobiographical recounting of various “selected” ailments he has experienced throughout his life with “the ambition to contribute to practical general practitioner (GP) knowledge” (p. 10). The book entitled “Physician, watch thyself: Witty lessons on Shitty Ailments of a Dutch GP” is an enjoyable, entertaining, humorous, and easy read– perhaps during a quiet evening.
Dr. van den Hombergh's writing style is succinct, where even with fairly brief descriptions of places and events (and some photographs dispersed throughout), one can easily and happily be transported to the many different locations he practiced in during his career. I found the descriptions of the Kenyan hospital and surrounding wilderness to be particularly enjoyable.
Much of the book is based on his (and sometimes other members of his family, friends, and colleagues) experiences and interpretations of diseases and afflictions. There are some great lessons and insights for GPs to be gained from his observations and commentary. For example, the importance of incorporating one's own experiences with illnesses provides great value in the diagnosis and treatment of one's patients, above and beyond the recommendations provided by evidence-based medicine and other guidelines. A second lesson is a value of knowing something about epidemiology and reviewing clinic or hospital census information to look for patterns and trends over time. A case in point is the author's observation in the Kenyan hospital where he practiced of the increase in deaths from traffic accidents due to rural development (paved roads). “The fact that Maasai suffer so much more greatly from speeding vehicles than enraged wildlife underscores the misconception. Westerners have of the danger of wildlife in Africa” (p. 40). The quote also underscores the need to look beyond immediate causes of morbidity and mortality to the larger social and environmental determinants of health.
The inclusion and exclusion of various maladies as the basis for various chapter content was a bit of a dilemma for the author to be sure: “The list is not 100% complete” (p. 152). However, I appreciated the inclusion of mental health, oral health, and insect bites in this work for they are often “secondary” considerations in busy primary care settings yet have a profound influence on overall quality of life.
While the book is largely focused on both common, and not always so common, ailments likely to be seen in western-based family medicine practice, it is also a book about global health and tropical medicine. The author shares a brief history of his 4 years of practice in a tropical hospital in Kenya. Based on those experiences, one of the most profound aspects of the book is a subtle suggestion (in my opinion) for medicine and medical education, in particular, to place more emphasis/re-emphasis on infectious diseases (think COVID-19 presently). Why isn't there more curriculum on such things as neglected tropical diseases and emerging and reemerging diseases?-referred to by the author as a “tropical laundry list.” Perhaps, there is a role here for this journal in partnership with The Network: Towards Unity for Health!
Finally, I would urge the author to create an audio version of his book. I believe an oral version of this work would prove even more enjoyable and entertaining than that already accomplished in the written form.
Comments (0)