Field of Medicine: All fields.
Format: Paperback book. Trim size: 6 × 9 inches.
Recommended Readership: Any medical doctor in training or in practice who cares for patients; allied health specialists.
Purpose: To provide readers an appreciation of the limitations that the current medical system in the United States imposes on doctors and allied health specialists as they care for patients.
Content: This book includes 240 pages of text divided into an acknowledgment page, a 3-page prologue, 14 chapters (each about a different patient), an epilogue, and endnotes. Boston-area cardiologist Stafford Cohen describes his experiences during his training and 51 years of practice. In compelling storytelling style, he points out how doctor–patient relationships of today differ from times past, and he offers his reactions and advice.
Strengths: This readable, masterful compilation contains valuable lessons from a gifted cardiologist who helped patients from all walks of life deal with cardiovascular diseases and personal issues. This book will help young physicians prepare for personal and familial challenges when interacting with patients, evoke vivid emotions from experienced physicians as they relive their own experiences, and enlighten allied specialists and laymen about challenges that cardiovascular physicians encounter.
Medical practice combines art with science: helping ill people, and extending the most reasonable and technically advanced treatments. Readers will benefit from the author's generously shared insights into both.
Weaknesses: None.
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