"Mullan gets it right! His 'big doctors' are the unsung heroes of American medicine. Their stories —and they are great stories—tell us where we have to go to build a medical system that will work for everybody. And I mean everybody - the CEO, the family on welfare, you, and me."—Studs Terkel, author of Working, The Good War, and Coming of Age "Big Doctoring is a unique undertaking. We hear people in the frontlines of medicine tell us their story, and tell it in their own voices. In these pages, which are a joy to read, we find proof that medicine is, and always will be, both art and science."—Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of The Tennis Partner "Big Doctoring is an extraordinarily compelling effort by a dedicated and idealistic physician -- who offers us, through the voices of his informants, a clearly written narrative that tells of a profession's contemporary challenges and difficulties. Here is documentary work of the most instructive and telling kind -- a nation's healers become witnesses and teachers for us readers."—Robert Coles, M.D. "At a time when both doctors and patients in record numbers abhor the shadowy mass of gloomy economics and gruesome bureaucracy that has overtaken American medicine, Mullan shows us a path out of the darkness. And his is a desperately needed map, as physicins and nurses are now quitting in droves, tens of millions of Americans are losing their health insurance, and millions more, though insured, are forbidden treatments and primary care that could save their lives. Bravo!"—Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust

A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.

For more than a century, the American medical profession insisted that doctors be rigorously trained in medical science and dedicated to professional ethics. Patients revered their doctors as representatives of a sacred vocation. Do we still trust doctors with the same conviction? In Trusting Doctors, Jonathan Imber attributes the development of patients' faith in doctors to the inspiration and influence of Protestant and Catholic clergymen during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He explains that as the influence of clergymen waned, and as reliance on medical technology increased, patients' trust in doctors steadily declined. Trusting Doctors discusses the emphasis that Protestant clergymen placed on the physician's vocation; the focus that Catholic moralists put on specific dilemmas faced in daily medical practice; and the loss of unchallenged authority experienced by doctors after World War II, when practitioners became valued for their technical competence rather than their personal integrity. Imber shows how the clergy gradually lost their impact in defining the physician's moral character, and how vocal critics of medicine contributed to a decline in patient confidence. The author argues that as modern medicine becomes defined by specialization, rapid medical advance, profit-driven industry, and ever more anxious patients, the future for a renewed trust in doctors will be confronted by even greater challenges. Trusting Doctors provides valuable insights into the religious underpinnings of the doctor-patient relationship and raises critical questions about the ultimate place of the medical profession in American life and culture.

Using the examples of Vioxx, Celebrex, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and anti-depressants, Overdo$ed America shows that at the heart of the current crisis in American medicine lies the commercialization of medical knowledge itself. Drawing on his background in statistics, epidemiology, and health policy, John Abramson, M.D., an award-winning family doctor on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School, reveals the ways in which the drug companies have misrepresented statistical evidence, misled doctors, and compromised our health. The good news is that the best scientific evidence shows that reclaiming responsibility for your own health is often far more effective than taking the latest blockbuster drug. You -- and your doctor -- will be stunned by this unflinching exposé of American medicine.

This comprehensive resource illuminates the past, present, and future of generalist medicine. Generalist Medicine and U.S. Health Policy contains new contributions from preeminent authorities and a selection of groundbreaking articles and reports from the past forty years. Generalist Medicine and U.S. Health Policy covers a broad range of topics that · Examines the current challenges of primary care and generalist medicine · Offers a chronological history of the growth of generalist medicine since the 1950s · Reviews the models of care on which generalist medicine is based · Analyzes the growth of three disciplines3⁄4general internists, family physicians, and pediatricians · Looks at the supply and distribution of generalist physicians · Discusses the education and training of generalist physicians · Reports on the cost and quality of the care provided by generalist versus specialists

This comprehensive history of medicine and public health in America covers changes and developments over four centuries, from the arrival of the first Europeans to the twenty-first century.

Practitioners like you have been turning to Micozzi's comprehensive CAM text for the past 20 years. Filled with the most up-to-date information on scientific theory and research and updated contributions from world experts, Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 5th Edition gives you a solid foundation of the therapies and evidence-based clinical applications for CAM – and expands your global perspective with new and updated chapters on healing systems from around the world. Dive into interesting discussions on massage, manual therapies and bodywork, yoga, chiropractic, osteopathy, herbal medicine, aromatherapy and essential oils therapy, "nature cure," naturopathy and naturopathic medicine, and nutrition and hydration. With its wide range of topics, this 20th anniversary edition is your ideal CAM reference! • A broad perspective traces CAM therapies from their beginnings to present day practices. • Clinical guides for selecting therapies, and new advances for matching the appropriate therapy to the individual patient, enables you to offer and/or recommend individualized patient care. • Expert contributors include well-known writers such as Kevin Ergil, Patch Adams, Joseph Pizzorno, and Marc Micozzi himself. • A unique synthesis of information, including historical usage, cultural and social analysis, current basic science theory and research, and a wide range of clinical investigations and observations, makes this text a focused, authoritative resource. • Suggested readings and references in each chapter list the best resources for further research and study. • Coverage of CAM therapies and systems includes those most commonly encountered or growing in popularity, so you can carefully evaluate each treatment. • An evidence-based approach focuses on treatments best supported by clinical trials and scientific evidence. • Observations from mechanisms of action to evidence of clinical efficacy answers questions of how, why, and when CAM therapies work. • Global coverage includes discussions of traditional healing arts from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. • NEW! Updated chapters feature new content and topics, including: challenges in integrative medicine, legal issues, CAM in the community, psychometric evaluation, placebo effect, stress management, and much more! • NEW! Updated guides on common herbal remedies in clinical practice, East and Southeast Asia, and native North and South America deliver the latest information. • NEW! Revised chapters with new contributors offer fresh perspectives on these important and relevant topics. • EXPANDED! Basic science content and new theory and research studies cover a wide range of sciences such as biophysics, biology and ecology, ethnomedicine, psychometrics, neurosciences, and systems theory. • NEW! New and expanded global ethnomedical systems include new content on Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, Central and North Asia, Southeast Asia, Nepal and Tibet, Hawaii and South Pacific, Alaska and Pacific Northwest, and contemporary global healthcare.

New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.

A doctor tells his own behind-the-scenes story of the making of a medical man and the disintegration of an American myth

With family doctors increasingly overburdened, bureaucratized, and burned out, how can the field change before it's too late? Over the past few decades, as American medical practice has become increasingly specialized, the number of generalists—doctors who care for the whole person—has plummeted. On paper, family medicine sounds noble; in practice, though, the field is so demanding in scope and substance, and the health system so favorable to specialists, that it cannot be fulfilled by most doctors. In Searching for the Family Doctor, Timothy J. Hoff weaves together the early history of the family practice specialty in the United States with the personal narratives of modern-day family doctors. By formalizing this area of practice and instituting specialist-level training requirements, the originators of family practice hoped to increase respect for generalists, improve the pipeline of young medical graduates choosing primary care, and, in so doing, have a major positive impact on the way patients receive care. Drawing on in-depth interviews with fifty-five family doctors, Hoff shows us how these medical professionals have had their calling transformed not only by the indifferent acts of an unsupportive health care system but by the hand of their own medical specialty—a specialty that has chosen to pursue short- over long-term viability, conformity over uniqueness, and protectionism over collaboration. A specialty unable to innovate to keep its membership cohesive and focused on fulfilling the generalist ideal. The family doctor, Hoff explains, was conceived of as a powered-up version of the "country doctor" idea. At a time when doctor-patient relationships are evaporating in the face of highly transactional, fast-food-style medical practice, this ideal seems both nostalgic and revolutionary. However, the realities of highly bureaucratic reimbursement and quality-of-care requirements, educational debt, and ongoing consolidation of the old-fashioned independent doctor's office into corporate health systems have stacked the deck against the altruists and true believers who are drawn to the profession of family practice. As more family doctors wind up working for big health care corporations, their career paths grow more parochial, balkanizing the specialty. Their work roles and professional identities are increasingly niche-oriented. Exploring how to save primary care by giving family doctors a fighting chance to become the generalists we need in our lives, Searching for the Family Doctor is required reading for anyone interested in the troubled state of modern medicine.