Medical/Humanitarian books you have read

[thitchcock]

Since most of us are pretty neurotic about med school I was wondering what books everyone has read about med school, medicine, and humanitarian work... heres my list so far...
Mountains Beyond Mountains
My Own Country
Med School Confidential
Hope in Hell (about Doctors Without Borders)
Pathologies of Power
The Gene Masters (about the Human Genome Project, picked it to do a report about it for Genetics)
The Social Medicine Reader
On Doctoring
and Three Cups of Tea

currently working on "Caring for Patients From Different Cultures"
on my bookshelf to read next...
What I Learned in Medical School
Stones into Schools

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[chman]

I say it on every book thread; The House of God

I seriously love that book.

 

[JoshuaGuit]

I'm reading The House of God right now, it's pretty good 🙂

 

[SweetRain]

Where there is no doctor

It's not really a sit down and read sort of book, more like an instruction manual. But very inspiring for those who are interested in rural medicine and public service.

 

[bigbad]

Where there is no doctor

It's not really a sit down and read sort of book, more like an instruction manual. But very inspiring for those who are interested in rural medicine and public service.

I remember seeing that in a library or something. Everytime it mentioned something about feces it would always say "****" in parentheses next to it. For example: "if you see feces (****) on the ground, don't touch it." Then it would have a picture of some poop crossed out.

Never figured why

 

[thitchcock]

I just looked up The House of God on Amazon, looks good, Ill have to add it to my list...

 

[Astarael]

I second (third?) the recommendation for House of God. It's a pretty awesome book. Complications by Atul Gawande is good as well. I'm assuming his other stuff is good, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[SweetRain]

I remember seeing that in a library or something. Everytime it mentioned something about feces it would always say "****" in parentheses next to it. For example: "if you see feces (****) on the ground, don't touch it." Then it would have a picture of some poop crossed out.

Never figured why

Haha, the same thing came to my mind when I was writing that post. It's partly for the sake of adding humor to it, but it's also because this book is written in a language that is easy for everyone to understand.

 

[LizzyM]

Where There Is No Doctor is meant for laypeople so they use common slang terms for things like sh it.

House of God is a classic but I do think that it is wasted on anyone who has not spent at least 6 mos in the hospital (save it for Christmas break of your M3 year). Buffing, turfing, and social admissions went out of fashion more than 25 years ago with changes in financial incentives but it is still an amusing book about having the humanity sucked out of you as a trainee and the subsequent depersonalization of patients.

Currently reading The Lassa Ward by Ross Donaldson. Memoire of an MD/MPH student who did clinical research in Africa.

I also recommend Forgive and Remember Managing Medical Failure by Charles Bosk. It is a classic in sociologic research.

If you have access to JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association, there is a short essay on doctoring and a poem each week.

 

[Oldmanandthesea]

I also really liked Atul Gawande's second book, Better.


For some lighter reading, I recommend the 2 books by Michael Collins: blue collar, blue scrubs
And hot lights, cool steel.

 

[jadealer]

-The Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflection on Mortality By: Pauline W. Chen

-Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present By: Harriet A. Washington