Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine

Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine PDF Author: Thomas H. Lee
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726561
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Book Description
Much of the improved survival rate from heart attack can be traced to Eugene Braunwald's work. He proved that myocardial infarction was an hours-long dynamic process which could be altered by treatment. Thomas H. Lee tells the life story of a physician whose activist approach transformed not just cardiology but the culture of American medicine.

Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine

Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine PDF Author: Thomas H. Lee
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674727916
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
Since the 1950s, the death rate from heart attacks has plunged from 35 percent to about 5 percent—and fatalistic attitudes toward this disease and many others have faded into history. Much of the improved survival and change in attitudes can be traced to the work of Eugene Braunwald, MD. In the 1960s, he proved that myocardial infarction was not a “bolt from the blue” but a dynamic process that plays out over hours and thus could be altered by treatment. By redirecting cardiology from passive, risk-averse observation to active intervention, he helped transform not just his own field but the culture of American medicine. Braunwald’s personal story demonstrates how the forces of history affected the generation of researchers responsible for so many medical advances in the second half of the twentieth century. In 1938 Nazi occupiers forced his family to flee Vienna for Brooklyn. Because of Jewish quotas in medical schools, he was the last person admitted to his class, but went on to graduate number one. When the Doctor Draft threatened to interrupt his medical training during the Korean War, he joined the National Institutes of Health instead of the Navy, and there he began the research that made him the most influential cardiologist of his time. In Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine, Thomas H. Lee offers insights that only authoritative firsthand interviews can provide, to bring us closer to this iconic figure in modern medicine.

Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine

Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine PDF Author: Thomas H. Lee
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674724976
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Since the 1950s, the death rate from heart attacks has plunged from 35 percent to about 5 percent--and fatalistic attitudes toward this disease and many others have faded into history. Much of the improved survival and change in attitudes can be traced to the work of Eugene Braunwald, MD. In the 1960s, he proved that myocardial infarction was not a "bolt from the blue" but a dynamic process that plays out over hours and thus could be altered by treatment. By redirecting cardiology from passive, risk-averse observation to active intervention, he helped transform not just his own field but the culture of American medicine. Braunwald's personal story demonstrates how the forces of history affected the generation of researchers responsible for so many medical advances in the second half of the twentieth century. In 1938 Nazi occupiers forced his family to flee Vienna for Brooklyn. Because of Jewish quotas in medical schools, he was the last person admitted to his class, but went on to graduate number one. When the Doctor Draft threatened to interrupt his medical training during the Korean War, he joined the National Institutes of Health instead of the Navy, and there he began the research that made him the most influential cardiologist of his time. In Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine, Thomas H. Lee offers insights that only authoritative firsthand interviews can provide, to bring us closer to this iconic figure in modern medicine.

The Prince of Medicine

The Prince of Medicine PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019976767X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
This book is a biography of the physician Galen of Pergamum (A.D. 129 - ca. 216), who began his remarkable career tending to wounded gladiators in provincial Asia Minor. Later in life he achieved great distinction as one of a small circle of court physicians to the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, at the very heart of Roman society. --From publisher's description.

Chaos and Organization in Health Care

Chaos and Organization in Health Care PDF Author: Thomas H. Lee
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262258366
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Book Description
Two leading physicians' prescription for solving our health care problems: organizing the fragmented system that delivers care. One of the most daunting challenges facing the new U.S. administration is health care reform. The size of the system, the number of stakeholders, and ever-rising costs make the problem seem almost intractable. But in Chaos and Organization in Health Care, two leading physicians offer an optimistic prognosis. In their frontline work as providers, Thomas Lee and James Mongan see the inefficiency, the missed opportunities, and the occasional harm that can result from the current system. The root cause of these problems, they argue, is chaos in the delivery of care. If the problem is chaos, the solution is organization, and in this timely and outspoken book, they offer a plan. In many ways, this chaos is caused by something good: the dramatic progress in medical science—the explosion of medical knowledge and the exponential increase in treatment options. Imposed on a fragmented system of small practices and individual patients with multiple providers, progress results in chaos. Lee and Mongan argue that attacking this chaos is even more important than whether health care is managed by government or controlled by market forces. Some providers are already tightly organized, adapting management principles from business and offering care that is by many measures safer, better, and less costly. Lee and Mongan propose multiple strategies that can be adopted nationwide, including electronic medical records and information systems for sharing knowledge; team-based care, with doctors and other providers working together; and disease management programs to coordinate care for the sickest patients.

Medical Muses

Medical Muses PDF Author: Asti Hustvedt
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408822350
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
In 1862 the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris became the epicenter of the study of hysteria, the mysterious illness then thought to affect half of all women. There, prominent neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot's contentious methods caused furore within the church and divided the medical community. Treatments included hypnosis, piercing and the evocation of demons and, despite the controversy they caused, the experiments became a fascinating and fashionable public spectacle. Medical Muses tells the stories of the women institutionalised in the Salpêtrière. Theirs is a tale of science and ideology, medicine and the occult, of hypnotism, sadism, love and theatre. Combining hospital records, municipal archives, memoirs and letters, Medical Muses sheds new light on a crucial moment in psychiatric history.

Predictive Health

Predictive Health PDF Author: Kenneth L. Brigham
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0465032990
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Our health care system is crippled by desperate efforts to prevent the inevitable. A third of the national Medicare budget -- nearly 175 billion -- is spent on the final year of life, and a third of that amount on the final month, often on expensive (and futile) treatments. Such efforts betray a fundamental flaw in how we think about healthcare: we squander resources on hopeless situations, instead of using them to actually improve health. In Predictive Health, distinguished doctors Kenneth Brigham and Michael M.E. Johns propose a solution: invest earlier -- and use science and technology to make healthcare more available and affordable. Every child would begin life with a post-natal genetic screen, when potential risk -- say for type II diabetes or heart disease -- would be found. More data on biology, behavior, and environment would be captured throughout her life. Using this information, health-care workers and the people they care for could forge personal strategies for healthier living long before a small glitch blows up into major disease. This real health care wouldn't just replace much of modern disease care -- it would make it obsolete. The result, according to Brigham and Johns, will be a life defined by a long stay at top physical and mental form, rather than an early peak and long decline. Accomplishing this goal will require new tools, new clinics, fewer doctors and more mentors, smarter companies, and engaged patients. In short, it will require a revolution. Thanks to a decade-long collaboration between Brigham, Johns and others, it is already underway. An optimistic plan for reducing or eliminating many chronic diseases as well as reforming our faltering medical system, Predictive Health is a deeply knowledgeable, deeply humane proposal for how we can reallocate expenses and resources to prolong the best years of life, rather than extending the worst.

William Osler

William Osler PDF Author: Michael Bliss
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802085412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 626

Book Description
In his time the most famous physician in the world, Canadian-born William Osler (1849-1919) is still the best-known figure in the history of medicine. This new, definitive biography by Michael Bliss is the first full-scale life of Osler to appear since 1925. An award-winning medical historian, Bliss draws on many untapped sources to recreate Osler's life and medical times for a new generation of readers. Born at Bond Head, north of Toronto, Osler rose from obscurity to become the greatest medical teacher and writer in three countries. At Canada's McGill University, America's Johns Hopkins University, and finally as regius professor at Oxford, Osler was idolized by two generations of medical students and practitioners, for whom he came to personify the ideal doctor. His quest was to bring high standards and scientific methods into general practice in the medical world and to give teaching hospitals a solid place in the education of doctors. The publication of his book, The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), established him as the authority of modern medicine, a position he held well into the new century. Osler was revered as the high priest of the advent of twentieth-century medicine. In this fine biography, Michael Bliss animates the epic quality of Osler's life - not only in telling his personal story, but in setting that story against the dramatic backdrop of the coming of modern medicine. Winner of the Jason A. Hannah Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of Canada and the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine

The Danger Within Us

The Danger Within Us PDF Author: Jeanne Lenzer
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316343781
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Did you know... Medical interventions have become the third leading cause of death in America. An estimated 10 percent of Americans are implanted with medical devices -- like pacemakers, artificial hips, cardiac stents, etc. The overwhelming majority of high-risk implanted devices have never undergone a single clinical trial. In The Danger Within Us, award-winning journalist Jeanne Lenzer brings these horrifying statistics to life through the story of one working class man who, after his "cure" nearly kills him, ends up in a battle for justice against the medical establishment. His crusade leads Lenzer on a journey through the dark underbelly of the medical device industry, a fascinating and disturbing world that hasn't been written about before. What Lenzer exposes will shock readers: rampant corruption, elaborate cover-ups, shameless profiteering, and astonishing lack of oversight, all of which leads to dangerous devices (from artificial hips to pacemakers) going to market and into our bodies. In the vein of America's Bitter Pill and A Civil Action, The Danger Within Us is a stirring call for reform and a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of American healthcare. "Before you get anything implanted in your body, read this book."-Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated

Caring for the Heart

Caring for the Heart PDF Author: Bruce Fye
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019998235X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 705

Book Description
This study explores the parallel histories of the Mayo Clinic, the care of patients with heart disease, and specialization in cardiology during the twentieth century. Chapters are devoted to such technologies as open-heart surgery, coronary angiography, and echocardiography, and to the key individuals, instituions, and innovations that played vital roles in the technologies that transformed heart care.--From publisher description.