The Midnight Meal: And Other Essays about Doctors, Patients, and Medicine

by Jerome Lowenstein

Book Overview

In this expanded edition, an accomplished physician and teacher of medicine discusses the importance of being a caring doctor, especially now that the focus of medicine is increasingly on technological innovation and health care costs.

With wisdom and compassion, Dr. Jerome Lowenstein tells stories about relationships between medical students and their teachers, physicians and their patients. He reflects on what doctors learn from treating chronic illness; how they respond to patients' needs for reassurance; how they bear the burden of treating patients with life-threatening or degenerative disease; whether the distinction between traditional and "alternative" medical treatment is ultimately beneficial or destructive; and many other issues. Dr. Lowenstein's ruminations on humanistic approaches to learning and practicing medicine will be treasured by physicians, medical students, and patients alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472030841
• ISBN13: 9780472030842
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Maintaining humanity in medicine

A series of interesting vignettes by a New York internist/nephrologist on maintaining humanity in medicine. Written in a "from the hip" style, Dr. Lowenstein's book focuses on many of the pitfalls plaguing medicine today. With great and promising technological advances comes a loss of the human approach, something Dr. Lowenstein bemoans. Make no bones about it (no pun)--Dr. Lowenstein does not call for a return to simpler times. However, his musings cause one to wonder if we have lost something special and important as the wheels of progress roll on. Many anecdotes on a range of subjects regarding the daily life of doctors make this book interesting reading for all, and especially for those contemplating entering the medical profession. With this book, Dr. Lowenstein certainly is not "holding the blood gas report", which is the title of one of "The Midnight Meal's" particularly poignant essays.