The Present Illness

Martin F. Shapiro, MD, PhD, MPH (NEW YORK, NY), is a physician, health services researcher, and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research for 25 years. He is the author of Getting Doctored: Critical Reflections on Becoming a Physician.

Prologue. The Present Illness Chapter 1. The Best of Times? A Tale of Two Health Care Narratives Chapter 2. A Heart in a Heartless World: What Patients Want and Need Chapter 3. Doctors and Dollars: Antecedents, Actions, and Consequences Chapter 4. Procedural Proficiency or Human Connection? Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Opportunities Chapter 5. Idealism on Life Support: Missed Opportunities in Medical Student Education Chapter 6. Errors of (com)Mission: Misdirected Priorities in Education, Practice, and Research Chapter 7. Making a Killing: Corporate Providers of Medical Care Chapter 8. Biomedical Scientists and Their Truths: Disinterested Investigation or Prioritized Self-Interest? Chapter 9. "Doing Everything for Money": The Producers of Health Care Products Chapter 10. Human Rights and Wrong Turns: Some Problems with Health Care Financing, American Style Chapter 11. Protagonists, Pitfalls, and Lessons from Abroad: The Tortuous Path to Health Care for All Chapter 12. Rectitude or Revenue? American Health Care in the Marketplace Chapter 13. Atomization and Its Discontents: The Consciousness and Connectedness of Participants in Health Care Chapter 14. Malevolent Messaging: Toxic Interactions in Health Care Chapter 15. Healing American Health Care: To Palliate, to Cure, or Both? Epilogue. Lessons Learned Acknowledgments Appendix. Quixotic Proposals for Treating American Health Care's Afflictions Index