Books to read to become a better doctor

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The Ultimate Pre-med Reading list. Books that make you better!

List any book you think is worth adding to the list.

The LIST (march 2011)


  • House of God
  • The Art of War
  • Everybody Poops
  • Forgive and Remember by Charles Bosk
  • The Making of a Surgeon by Dr. William Nolen
  • Intern by Doctor X (Alan Nourse)
  • Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
  • Complications
  • Clinical Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple
  • How Doctors Think, by Groopman
  • The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness, by Groopman
  • INTERNAL BLEEDING: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, by Wachter and Shojania
  • Walk on Water: The Miracle of Saving Children's Lives, by Ruhlman
  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Gawande
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, by Miller
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Lost In America: A Journey with My Father
  • Hot Lights, Cold Steel
  • Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs
  • Another Day In the Frontal Lobe
  • Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain
  • Eleven Blue Men
  • America's Social Health by Marque-Luisa Miringgoff
  • The Checklist Manifesto
  • Body of Work - Meditations on Mortality from The Human Anatomy Lab
  • Every Patient Tells a Story - Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis
  • The Diagnosis of Acute Abdomen in Rhyme
  • A Case of Need
  • Walking out on the Boys by Francis Conley
  • The Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • The Man who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
  • The Strange Case of The Walking Cadaver by Nancy Butcher
  • Timeline by Michael Crichton
  • The Intern Blues by Rober Marion
  • Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives
  • The Scalpel and the SIlver Bear
  • Health and Healing by Andrew Weil
  • A Map of the Child by Darshak Sangavi
  • Terminal by Robin Cook
  • The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine
  • The Elegant Universe by Brain Greene
  • Walk on Water: INside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit
  • The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler
  • Becoming a Doctor by melivin Konner
  • The Ditchdigger's Daughters
  • The Dressing Station by Jonathan Kaplan
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest for Dr. Paul Farmer
  • Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist who Helped Her
  • Surviing the Extremes, A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance
  • Travels and/or Five Patients by Michael Crichton
  • Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
  • On Doctoring by Richard Reynolds
  • The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  • The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Speciality by Brain Freeman
  • Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer
  • Pathologies of Power
  • Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup
  • Tuesdays With Morrie
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
  • A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student
  • Young "what my Patients Taught Me"
  • Forgive and Remember, Managing Medical Failure
  • The Lassa Ward
  • The Lazarus Case Life and Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care
  • The Knife Man, The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter
  • Not All of Us are Saints, A Doctor's Journey with the Poor
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  • A Way of Life by William Osler
  • Classic Cases in Medical Ethics, Gregory Pence
  • A PhD is Not Enough, Peter Feibelman
  • Doctor Stories, Carlos Williams
  • Who Shall Live?, Victor Fuchs
  • My Own Country, Abraham Verghese
  • Confessions of a Knife, Richard Selzer
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain, Frank Vertosick
  • The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
  • Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling
  • Hot Viruses Around the World, CJ Peters
  • The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager
  • The Great Influenza, John Barry
  • The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
  • The Coming Plague, Laurie Garret
  • The Constant Gardener, John LeCarre
  • Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • My stroke of insight by Jill Bolt
  • movie "Something the Lord Made"
  • The Short Guide to a Happy Life (Anna Quindlen)
  • Worried Sick by Nortin Hadle
  • Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
  • Sick by Jonathan Cohn
  • the last lecture
  • Improving your Bedside Manner by Jacquelyn Small
  • Gifted Hands by Ben Carson
  • Something for the Pain by Paul Austin
  • Starcraft Ghost Nova
  • Strength in what remains by Tracy Kidder
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
  • Pathologies of Power, written by Dr. Farmer
  • Righteous Dopefiend by Philippe Bourgois
  • In Search of Respect
  • Twilight
  • health care meltdown by lebow
  • Extreme Clinic -- An Outpatient Doctor's Guide to the Perfect 7 Minute Visit
  • The Emperor of All Maladies
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-Skloot
  • Another Day in the Frontal Lope-Firlik
  • My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March by Lester I. Tenney
  • Intern: A Doctor's Initiation by Sandeep Jauhar
  • Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives" by Pamela Grim, M.D.
  • Tuesdays With Morri
  • A Lesson Before Dyin
  • http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_gawande (letting go)
  • Becoming a Better Doctor by Dr. Al Notre
  • "Kill as Few Patients as Possible: And 56 Other Essays on How to Be the World's Best Doctor" by Oscar London
  • From Voodoo to Viagra, also from Oscar London
  • Final Exam
  • Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem
  • A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berge
  • Cheating Death by Sanjay Gupta
  • Cheating Death by Sanjay Gupta
  • Night Shift by Brian Goldman
  • What I learned in medical school--collection of short essays
    Becoming a Doctor by Melvin Konner
  • the 48 laws of power ~ Robert Greene
  • The Art of Seduction ~ Robert Greene
  • The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. By T. R. Reid
  • Millions Saved: Proven Successes In Global Health by Ruth Levine
  • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
  • Deadly Spin by Wendell Potter
  • Mushashi - Book of 5 Rings
  • Martin Buber - I and Thou
  • Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
  • Castiglione - the Book of the Courtier
  • Overdosed America
  • The Illness Narratives by physician/anthropologist Arthur Kleinman
  • Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face by Christopher Johnson MD
  • The Scalpel and the Soul by Allan Hamilton MD
  • Saving Sammy by Beth Allison Maloney
  • Doctors - by Erich Segal
  • Final Diagnosis - by Arthur Hailey
 
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I'm not a physician, but two of my favorite books about doctors both came out many years ago.

"The Making of a Surgeon" by Dr. William Nolen, who died in 1986, was reissued a few years ago with a foreword written by his daughter. It's about his residency at Bellevue in NYC in the 1950s.

And from the other coast came "Intern" by Doctor X, later identified as Dr. Alan Nourse, who mostly wrote science fiction and medical books for children, as well as a monthly column in "Good Housekeeping". He did his residency in Seattle (I had incorrectly guessed either Denver or Albuquerque) and kept a diary. The diary was from 1956-57 and published in 1965. He also died way too soon, in 1992.

More recently, I read "Journey Round My Skull" by Czech author Frigyes Karinthy, who is best known for originating the phrase "six degrees of separation". He had a brain tumor in the 1930s and this is the story of its progression, misdiagnosis, and removal.
 
as someone that hasn't even started medical school--I read for enjoyment. Not improving myself as a doctor.

I don't mean to criticize anyone that reads for that reason. I just, I'm not at that point---and I don't know if I will be.

I feel like there's so much time focused on reading for stuff that isn't entertaining. John Grisham helps me get away from it all.

All doctor all the time would drive me insane.
 
Still in undergrad so I really don't have much insight on books to become a better doctor (so I guess this is OT-my apologies) but, I have read a few medically relevant books on my downtime that I have enjoyed. Mostly from a doctor's perspective about life as a physician. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe gives interesting insight into the life of a brain surgeon
 
The book "Complications". It is a surgeon's memoirs...goes into detail about his experience as a surgery intern/surgeon.

I had to read it for a history of medicine class (I think it was that class) during undergrad. Good stuff.
 
lol. I posted this in the allo forum but I guess that is against the rules? Mods are funny sometimes.

Not sure why, because this was originally directed for medical students.
 
Clinical pathophysiology made ridiculously simple is a really good book if you have little med background, but want a talking, simple to understand style text to give you some awesome insight in how these organs work together, in the basic fundamentals...really interesting book...
 
Hello,

I was wondering if some allopathic students could give me recommendations of books that can help one to become better in his/her field.

I'm not necessarily saying that I want a list of BRS books or Moore's anatomy, things like that. Instead, any book (textbook, novel, non-fiction, etc.) that has either helped your thinking or better educated you in the field.

Thanks in advance

I originally posted this, but for some reason it was moved because of the wrong title? not sure.
 
jm192 said:
as someone that hasn't even started medical school--I read for enjoyment. Not improving myself as a doctor.

I don't mean to criticize anyone that reads for that reason. I just, I'm not at that point---and I don't know if I will be.

I feel like there's so much time focused on reading for stuff that isn't entertaining. John Grisham helps me get away from it all.

All doctor all the time would drive me insane.
Click to expand...

All doctor all the time would drive me insane also. I was actually looking for "some doctor, some of the time" for the entire year I have off.👍
 
ColonelTigh said:
Clinical pathophysiology made ridiculously simple is a really good book if you have little med background, but want a talking, simple to understand style text to give you some awesome insight in how these organs work together, in the basic fundamentals...really interesting book...
Click to expand...

sounds interesting.👍
 
Running list for others:


  • House of God
  • The Art of War
  • Everybody Poops
  • Forgive and Remember by Charles Bosk
  • The Making of a Surgeon by Dr. William Nolen
  • Intern by Doctor X (Alan Nourse)
  • Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
  • Complications
  • Clinical Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple
 
i love that you actually included everybody poops on that compilation list.
 
 
 
Another Day In the Frontal Lobe, by Katrina Firlik, MD. Good stuff.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Catche...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280496287&sr=8-1

41RDYMZutnL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Leaves you feeling incredibly frustrated and angry - at the parents, social workers, medical community. But it's a good introduction to the frustration you will sometimes feel when working with patients.
 
House of God. It made me realize I'm much more ageist than I thought I was 😛
 
Tesseract said:
Seconded. I regularly use some of the thinking strategies talked about in this book on the ambulance.
Click to expand...

Thirded. I'm half-way through the book and I'm already in love 😍. It's very insightful and gives a different perspective in medical treatment.
 
I would agree with House of God. A must read. Also any of Atul Gawande's three books, as well as Michael J Collins. Frank Vertosic also has a great book if you are interested in Neurosurgery: When the Air Hits Your Brain. But then again I am an Osteopathic medical student so not sure how helpful that is for you 😀
 
MCAT guy said:
Click to expand...

This book is about Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who appeared to have been a sociopath whose life outside the operating room was devoted to destroying everyone and everything around him.

After posting I remembered that his brother Richard, mentioned only in passing in the book, was a transplant surgeon himself (although AFAIK he never did a heart; I do know that he did one of the first bowel transplants but the patient lived only a few days) and at least one of his children is a physician too.
 
Agreed, "The House of God" and "And the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" are both very good books. My medical sociology professor told us that the latter was required reading at some schools before orientation (idk if that's true anymore though). It also might be a little too "real" if you're trying to get away from the doctoring part of it all for a while, but it's still a very interesting read. 🙂
 
Your Friendly Update...

(I found a few books from a allopathic school summer required reading list that I added).

Also, I found another thread with a list of 60+ books, so I added the new ones.
  • House of God
  • The Art of War
  • Everybody Poops
  • Forgive and Remember by Charles Bosk
  • The Making of a Surgeon by Dr. William Nolen
  • Intern by Doctor X (Alan Nourse)
  • Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
  • Complications
  • Clinical Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple
  • How Doctors Think, by Groopman
  • The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness, by Groopman
  • INTERNAL BLEEDING: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, by Wachter and Shojania
  • Walk on Water: The Miracle of Saving Children's Lives, by Ruhlman
  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Gawande
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, by Miller
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Lost In America: A Journey with My Father
  • Hot Lights, Cold Steel
  • Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs
  • Another Day In the Frontal Lobe
  • Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain
  • Eleven Blue Men
  • America's Social Health by Marque-Luisa Miringgoff
  • The Checklist Manifesto
  • Body of Work - Meditations on Mortality from The Human Anatomy Lab
  • Every Patient Tells a Story - Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis
  • The Diagnosis of Acute Abdomen in Rhyme
  • A Case of Need
  • Walking out on the Boys by Francis Conley
  • The Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • The Man who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
  • The Strange Case of The Walking Cadaver by Nancy Butcher
  • Timeline by Michael Crichton
  • The Intern Blues by Rober Marion
  • Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives
  • The Scalpel and the SIlver Bear
  • Health and Healing by Andrew Weil
  • A Map of the Child by Darshak Sangavi
  • Terminal by Robin Cook
  • The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine
  • The Elegant Universe by Brain Greene
  • Walk on Water: INside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit
  • The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler
  • Becoming a Doctor by melivin Konner
  • The Ditchdigger's Daughters
  • The Dressing Station by Jonathan Kaplan
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest for Dr. Paul Farmer
  • Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist who Helped Her
  • Surviing the Extremes, A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance
  • Travels and/or Five Patients by Michael Crichton
  • Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
  • On Doctoring by Richard Reynolds
  • The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  • The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Speciality by Brain Freeman
  • Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer
  • Pathologies of Power
  • Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup
  • Tuesdays With Morrie
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
  • A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student
  • Young "what my Patients Taught Me"
  • Forgive and Remember, Managing Medical Failure
  • The Lassa Ward
  • The Lazarus Cafe Life and Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care
  • The Knife Man, The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter
  • Not All of Us are Saints, A Doctor's Journey with the Poor
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  • A Way of Life by William Osler
  • Classic Cases in Medical Ethics, Gregory Pence
  • A PhD is Not Enough, Peter Feibelman
  • House of God, Samuel Shem
  • Doctor Stories, Carlos Williams
  • Who Shall Live?, Victor Fuchs
  • My Own Country, Abraham Verghese
  • Confessions of a Knife, Richard Selzer
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain, Frank Vertosick
  • The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
  • Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling
  • Hot Viruses Around the World, CJ Peters
  • The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager
  • The Great Influenza, John Barry
  • The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
  • The Coming Plague, Laurie Garret
  • The Constant Gardener, John LeCarre
 
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That list ought to be enough to keep you occupied until MS1 class starts in two weeks.
 
tkim said:
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Catche...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280496287&sr=8-1


Leaves you feeling incredibly frustrated and angry - at the parents, social workers, medical community. But it's a good introduction to the frustration you will sometimes feel when working with patients.
Click to expand...

The Spirit Catches You is truly an excellent book. This was actually required reading during my first year of med school, and the doctors in the story were guest speakers for my class. It provides tremendous insight into patient care and cultural competency.

Another great book is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It's a fictional story written by a practicing physician, and is just a wonderful, emotional read. Verghese is a wonderful author so I'd recommend any of his books.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Another great author, and this book makes you think about life and look at things in a totally new way.
 
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The LIST


  • House of God
  • The Art of War
  • Everybody Poops
  • Forgive and Remember by Charles Bosk
  • The Making of a Surgeon by Dr. William Nolen
  • Intern by Doctor X (Alan Nourse)
  • Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
  • Complications
  • Clinical Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple
  • How Doctors Think, by Groopman
  • The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness, by Groopman
  • INTERNAL BLEEDING: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, by Wachter and Shojania
  • Walk on Water: The Miracle of Saving Children's Lives, by Ruhlman
  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Gawande
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, by Miller
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Lost In America: A Journey with My Father
  • Hot Lights, Cold Steel
  • Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs
  • Another Day In the Frontal Lobe
  • Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain
  • Eleven Blue Men
  • America's Social Health by Marque-Luisa Miringgoff
  • The Checklist Manifesto
  • Body of Work - Meditations on Mortality from The Human Anatomy Lab
  • Every Patient Tells a Story - Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis
  • The Diagnosis of Acute Abdomen in Rhyme
  • A Case of Need
  • Walking out on the Boys by Francis Conley
  • The Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
  • The Man who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
  • The Strange Case of The Walking Cadaver by Nancy Butcher
  • Timeline by Michael Crichton
  • The Intern Blues by Rober Marion
  • Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives
  • The Scalpel and the SIlver Bear
  • Health and Healing by Andrew Weil
  • A Map of the Child by Darshak Sangavi
  • Terminal by Robin Cook
  • The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine
  • The Elegant Universe by Brain Greene
  • Walk on Water: INside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit
  • The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler
  • Becoming a Doctor by melivin Konner
  • The Ditchdigger's Daughters
  • The Dressing Station by Jonathan Kaplan
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest for Dr. Paul Farmer
  • Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist who Helped Her
  • Surviing the Extremes, A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance
  • Travels and/or Five Patients by Michael Crichton
  • Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
  • On Doctoring by Richard Reynolds
  • The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  • The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Speciality by Brain Freeman
  • Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer
  • Pathologies of Power
  • Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup
  • Tuesdays With Morrie
  • King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
  • A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student
  • Young "what my Patients Taught Me"
  • Forgive and Remember, Managing Medical Failure
  • The Lassa Ward
  • The Lazarus Cafe Life and Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care
  • The Knife Man, The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter
  • Not All of Us are Saints, A Doctor's Journey with the Poor
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  • A Way of Life by William Osler
  • Classic Cases in Medical Ethics, Gregory Pence
  • A PhD is Not Enough, Peter Feibelman
  • House of God, Samuel Shem
  • Doctor Stories, Carlos Williams
  • Who Shall Live?, Victor Fuchs
  • My Own Country, Abraham Verghese
  • Confessions of a Knife, Richard Selzer
  • When the Air Hits Your Brain, Frank Vertosick
  • The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
  • Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling
  • Hot Viruses Around the World, CJ Peters
  • The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager
  • The Great Influenza, John Barry
  • The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
  • The Coming Plague, Laurie Garret
  • The Constant Gardener, John LeCarre
  • Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
 
tkim said:
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Catche...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280496287&sr=8-1

41RDYMZutnL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Leaves you feeling incredibly frustrated and angry - at the parents, social workers, medical community. But it's a good introduction to the frustration you will sometimes feel when working with patients.
Click to expand...
Do a search for the title of that book and "DropkickMurphy" for one of the funniest rants in the history of this forum.

EDIT: Actually here you go....

DropkickMurphy said:
Here's my review of it:
I feel the need to point out the worst book ever recommended to premeds, because if I don't some bleeding heart little dipwad will come in here and post about how it is such a great book......the book? The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down......

It is the most worthless piece of bleeding heart, politically correct bull**** I have ever had the displeasure or reading. It's the sort of thing that aggregiously affluent white suburbanites read in order to make themselves feel better about their shallow existence and to feel superior because the "understand" the plight of the "poor" Hmong family. It's the liberal equivalent of masturbation since it benefits no one else but themselves- it certainly doesn't benefit pediatric patients to allow the ignorance, stupidity or just plain backwardness of their parents to cost them their health and/or their lives....all so we don't offend someone and can be "culturally sensitive".

I am not one who normally advocates banning books nor burning them. That, however, is one book I personally would like to see every copy of burned down to ashes and then the ashes pissed upon to make them cool enough to be loaded into bags for disposal in the deepest, most dank recess of an abandoned guano mine that can be found. Then the full length of the mine should be rigged with explosives which would be set off after someone makes sure all of the bats are out safely.

Anne Fadiman should be summarily executed- preferrably in a slow, meaningful and excruciatingly painful manner (think crucifixion above a nest of fire ants)- not lauded for writing that piece of drivel, because it was so slow, pointless and excruciatingly painful to read. The child's parents should have rotted in prison for letting their own superstitions get in the way of proper medical care for her, not been used as fodder for an insipid book. And I don't mean a soft American prison, I'm talking an S-21 style Cambodian prison.

If we can't say "s__t", "f__k" or "mother____er" on SDN without it being replaced automatically with **** then I request that the title of a book that is best described as being suitable for wiping the **** from one's butt should be similarly blocked from public view.

[/rant]
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Although this may be better suited for clinical years I would definately recommend The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gwande. While I actually didn't finish reading the very end of it (Dr. Gwande gives case after case of examples supporting checklists in medicine, I guess I just caught the geist and had to quit, lol). It's a reminder that sometimes going back to the basics is what's really important in medicine.

Not a quote but a sample:

In the book, he tells a story about a little European girl (7 or so) that was out with her parents when she fell in a frozen pond. They pulled her out but she wasn't breathing. Since the location was remote she was down a total of about 2 hours before reaching a hospital. EMS called ahead to the hospital to notify them of the situation which gave them proper time to prepare. (Don't quote me but I want to say putting her on bypass did the trick--normally ERs aren't prepared when they receive the incoming). I think she went home less than a week later. Dr. Gwande once again proves that standardized protocol for 'X victim' can mean the difference between life and death. Simply calling ahead to let the hospital get ready saved her life.
 
just caught the geist
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You mean 'gist' right? Otherwise I believe the folks from the Sci Fi channel would like to talk to you.

Dr. Gwande once again proves that standardized protocol for 'X victim' can mean the difference between life and death. Simply calling ahead to let the hospital get ready saved her life.
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That's what I dislike about Gwande. He seems to be hung up on himself and takes credit for the ideas of others without crossing the line into plagairism. Show me one study he has done on the subject of checklists in medicine where he wasn't the last author. Also, he's about 15 years, if not more, behind the curve to be leading the charge for checklist use. We all know what it takes to get our names tacked on at the end of a paper, especially when you have the name recognition he does. Every time I have heard him speak or read anything he has written it comes off as preachy.

In this case, he makes it sound like hospital call-ins are some sort of "Oh my god, why did I never think of that?" moment. Got news for you doc, I might not have a Harvard medical degree and a multi-million dollar book deal to my credit but pretty much every patient of any great acuity (and in some or perhaps most places EVERY patient) brought in by non-transfer ambulance gets a call-in. It's been that way for the better part of the past 50 years since EMS was founded. I have four words for you: "Squad 51 to Rampart". They are so common, as a point of fact, that one of my former medical directors actually told someone (namely me) "A good call-in is like a woman's skirt: short enough to keep my attention, but long enough to cover the essentials. Yours are more like a WonderBra: attention-getting but mostly based on false pretenses." Yeah, the kid was allegedly saved by the medics- or in the case of Europe, more likely the prehospital physician- calling in and requesting they get ready. I've never worked a code that has not had involved a pre-arrival notification. Usually it involves the phrase "You're going to be pissed at us for bringing this to your ER but....".

Also the story is a gross oversimplification of the factors involved with survival from cardiac arrest. That's something else I've noticed about Gwande's writings that is kind of annoying. He seems to be a big believer in things being contingent on broad strokes and grand gestures. It's one of the major problems with surgeons as a group, i.e., "a chance to cut, a chance to heal". Sort of a self-selecting set of personality traits; one does not go into surgery without a great deal of ego and a certain fetish for aggressive and overt action.
 
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My stroke of insight by Jill Bolt.
Very good, shorter read. It's about a neuroscientist that has a massive stroke. Goes into depth about the actual experience as well as the personal struggles/gains. Also explores contrast between patient and physician roles.
 
DrSalserito said:
Agreed, "The House of God" and "And the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" are both very good books. My medical sociology professor told us that the latter was required reading at some schools before orientation (idk if that's true anymore though). It also might be a little too "real" if you're trying to get away from the doctoring part of it all for a while, but it's still a very interesting read. 🙂
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it was true for me! just finished it, have to discuss it @ orientation.

also i hate reading anything written by Gawande. he's just so . . . i don't know. narcissistic? pretentious? bleh.
 
Not a book, but the movie "Something the Lord Made" is a fairly under the radar movie that's popular with premeds. It's great to watch on one of those days where you just need a break from studying.
 
Lacipart said:
Not a book, but the movie "Something the Lord Made" is a fairly under the radar movie that's popular with premeds. It's great to watch on one of those days where you just need a break from studying.
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It was originally slated for theatrical release, and then the filmmakers decided that HBO would be a more suitable way to show it. It is indeed wonderful, and is available on DVD.
 
kopitar said:
I would agree with House of God. A must read. Also any of Atul Gawande's three books, as well as Michael J Collins. Frank Vertosic also has a great book if you are interested in Neurosurgery: When the Air Hits Your Brain. But then again I am an Osteopathic medical student so not sure how helpful that is for you 😀
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Big second on the collins books. Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs rocks and so does the other one (not quite as much but after I read BSBS I had to keep going)
 
MCAT guy said:
Hello,

I was wondering if you all could give me recommendations of books you've read that have helped you become better in your field.

I'm not necessarily saying that I want a list of BRS books or Moore's anatomy, things like that. Instead, any book (textbook, novel, non-fiction, etc.) that has either helped your thinking or better educated you in the field.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...


Worried Sick by Nortin Hadler
 
These have all been listed (maybe we should keep track of how many people recommended a book? that would tell more about popularity), but I recommend:


  • Mountains Beyond Mountains
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Complications
  • How Doctors Think

This one isn't about doctors per se, but it's medically relevant and very interesting IMO:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

I'm going to order How We Die by Sherwin Nuland. 🙂

Can anyone recommend a book about the American health care system? Preferably something written for laypeople. Thanks in advance!
 
Senlin said:
These have all been listed (maybe we should keep track of how many people recommended a book? that would tell more about popularity), but I recommend:


  • Mountains Beyond Mountains
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Complications
  • How Doctors Think

This one isn't about doctors per se, but it's medically relevant and very interesting IMO:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

I'm going to order How We Die by Sherwin Nuland. 🙂

Can anyone recommend a book about the American health care system? Preferably something written for laypeople. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
http://www.amazon.com/Sick-Untold-Americas-Health-Crisis/dp/0060580453
Sick by Jonathan Cohn. Had to read it for a class I took last semester - I thought it presented a lot of aspects of the health care system in a pretty engaging way: patient's story -> what flawed part of the system failed said patient -> history of flaw -> wrap-up with patient's story.
 
I agree "Something the Lord Made" was a pretty great movie.

Maybe go with a classic or two? Don Quixote or The Great Gatsby, something like that? I just got through Don Quixote and am probably going to check out Wizard of Oz next. I was always a big fan of the Anne Rice vampire chronicles as well. 👍
 
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