Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine

by Eric J. Cassell

Book Overview

American medicine attracts some of the brightest and most motivated people the country has to offer, and it boasts the most advanced medical technology in the world, a wondrous parade of machines and techniques such as PET scans, MRI, angioplasty, endoscopy, bypasses, organ transplants, and much more besides. And yet, writes Dr. Eric Cassell, what started out early in the century as the exciting conquest of disease, has evolved into an overly expensive,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195113233
• ISBN13: 9780195113235
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The doctor 's retirement

I remebered Dr. Cassell after 25-30 years after I had given up on the medical profession and he is still contributing like he always did.

A Pediatrician's view

This is a remarkable presentation of the vast difference between what is taught in most medical schools in which the enphasis is on "What disease does the patient have?" versus the role of the primary physician who is concerned with how does this person adapt to what ever disease he has and how does it affect his life. Pediatricians are rated highly in this task in that they are so often involved on an ongoing basis with children and parents thru minor and major illnesses...as well as during life's normal challenges!. This is a great book written in a thought provoking and challenging manner. . Morris Wessel.

This book explores what the "art of medicine" means

As a primary care physician old enough to have experienced the deficiencies of fee-for-service payment, the attenuation of relationships induced by technology, and the intrusions of "managed care," I resonate with Dr. Cassell's return to "the basics," the primacy of the personal engagement between two unique individuals, and how it must predominate regardless of the overlying system. It is unfortunate that the publisher failed to match Dr. Cassell's attention to detail with their own. Mispellings, errors in punctuation, and simply sloppy proofreading abound. These defects constitute a serious, though nonfatal, shortcoming.