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Title: The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine by James Le Fanu ISBN: 0-7867-0967-7 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 09 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating read, interesting hypothesis
Comment: A must read for anyone blinded by medicine's apparent glory and victories over human disease. This book exposes the past in which medicine's landmark discoveries/ events are shown to be mostly a combination of chance, persistance, mindless trial and error or even freak accident. From modern medicines illustrious history '10 definitive moments' have been selected by the author to illustrate the events that have led to the glorified status that medicine holds in our western society. Beginning with Penicillin in 1941 and ending with the discovery of Helicobacter, the cause of peptic ulcers, in 1984. These accounts make any reader wide-eyed at the simplicity of some of the research designs and truck loads of luck involved in the discoveries. This portion of the novel is full of interesting facts concerning the '10 definitive moments' written in rich narrative rather than a more conventional dry historical account to keep any reader glued to his lazy chair.
The next portion of the book is an elaborate argument for his hypothesis; that medicine has long ago reached it epiphany and is currently in the decent phase, "The Fall". He gives convincing arguments for his opinion which makes a reader think about it even if one isn't totally convinced.
The Title, "The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine" caught my attention and once I opened the book the words trapped me until the last page was turned. Even after closing the book I considered his hypothesis and reflected on it, which has spawned me to follow up on some of his references and read some of them. In my opinion any book that causes such a fury of reading, thought, and reference checking and further reading is worth a look by any casually interested reader.
Rating: 5
Summary: The rise and fall of modern medicine
Comment: This is a brilliant book and I am amazed that this is the first review. It is a 'tour de force'. It brings together many threads of the great advances of modern medicine post war and chronicles how the golden age petered out eg the pharmacological revolution slowed rapidly particularly post thalidimide. It explores the fallacies and cheating which gave us the Social Theory ie ill health is all our own fault because of what we eat - we shouldn't eat so many lamb chops or choccie bikkies - and the unfulfilled expectations of genetics and its possible limited application in medicine. It is both scholarly and readable as well as becoming quite compelling. Even if the bloke is a journalist this is stunning stuff. I am still searching for an effective contrary view.
Rating: 4
Summary: The 12 definitive moments alone are worth the book
Comment: This book (written by J. Le Fanu, a medical journalist) attempts to synthetise the history of modern medicine as well as takes a critical look at present-day medical care. Titled "The Rise & Fall...", it appropriately begins with the Rise. Le Fanu has selected twelve discoveries that have allowed significant improvement in medicine in the past 50 years (of course, that leaves other important breakthroughs unaccounted). The description of the people involved in these discoveries - often medical practitioners or others busy with their everyday work, not laboratory-confined geniuses - is excellent. I loved in particular the account of the polio epidemic and the first use of positive-pressure mechanical ventilation on a large scale - using medical students as "pump power"!.
After this self-titled "lenghty prologue", however, my enthusiasm cooled down a little. Le Fanu sets out to answer four paradoxes of modern medical care: Why are so many medical practitioners disappointed with their job? Why are people so worried about their health while the health of the population at large never has been better? Why has alternative medicine become so popular? How can we cope with the rising costs of medical care? In "The Fall", Le Fanu takes aim at two domains of present-day medicine (what we could call "Epidemiology of modifiable risk factors" and "Genetic basis of disease") that are probably over-emphasized currently, but that hold lots of promise for the future. His condemning genetic therapy, in particular, is untimely: this technique is still at its birth.
Nevertheless, this book is worth having for the excellent historical insights it gives about medicine in the last half-century.
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Title: Co-Creative Science: A Revolution in Science Providing Real Solutions for Today's Health and Environment by Machaelle Small Wright, James F. Brisson ISBN: 0927978253 Publisher: Perelandra Ltd Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Paradigm Conspiracy: Why Our Social Systems Violate Human Potential-And How We Can Change Them by Denise Breton, Christopher Largent ISBN: 1568382081 Publisher: Hazelden Information Education Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults by Randall Neustaedter ISBN: 1556434235 Publisher: North Atlantic Books Pub. Date: 11 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr ISBN: 0465079350 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: April, 1984 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Normal Blood Test Scores Aren't Good Enough! by Ellie Cullen, Ann Louise Gittleman, Betty Kamen ISBN: 0971628300 Publisher: YFH Press Pub. Date: 28 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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