Hi there,
One suggestion: read the executive summary of the Institute of Medicine's report: Crossing the Quality Chasm. You can find it
here.
This was written in 2001 by some of the most important players in medicine in America today - it's a write-up of all the major problems in health care and the authors' opinions of how to fix it. The report itself is really long and pretty dry, but the summary gives you a good overview in about 20 pages.
My other favorite books about medicine:
-
The System by Haynes Johnson and David Broder - long, but it's a page-turner. About Clinton's failure to get legislation for universal health insurance passed. Great evidence for why politics and health care shouldn't mix.
-
The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr - a history of medicine throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
-
Complications by Atul Gawande (the New Yorker's health care writer) - about how hard it is to be a competent diagnostician.
-
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder - a bio of Paul Farmer, every do-gooder's favorite.
-
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman - fabulous. One of the best-written books I've ever read. About a Hmong (Laotian minority group) family's experience with medicine in America. Made me want to become a doctor.
-
Not All of Us Are Saints by David Hilfiker - a memoir by a doc who works with homeless men in DC. Really gives you a sense of the moral and personal issues practitioners face.
All of these would be great conversation material for interviews, or for many other forums! Dinner parties, dates, etc.
🙂
Long list, I know, and I'm sure you've got tons of time for these while you're working on your secondaries, haha. But all of these are definitely worth the time. Enjoy!
-Laura
