How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America

Description

How We Do Harm exposes the underbelly of health care today--the overtreatment of the rich, the undertreatment of the poor; the financial conflicts of interest that determine the care that physicians provide; the insurance companies that don't demand the best (or even the lease expensive) care; and the pharmaceutical companies concerned with selling drugs, regardless of whether they improve health or do harm. Dr. Otis Brawley is the chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society and an oncologist with a dazzling clinical, research, and policy career. How We Do Harm pulls back the curtain on how medicine is really practiced in America. Brawley tells of doctors who select treatment based on payment they will receive, rather than on demonstrated scientific results; hospitals and pharmaceutical companies that seek out patients to treat even if they are not actually ill (but as long as their insurance will pay); a public primed to swallow the latest pill, no matter the cost; and rising healthcare costs for unnecessary--and often unproven--treatments that we all pay for. Brawley calls for rational health care, health care drawn from results-based, scientifically justifiable treatments, and not just the peddling of hot new drugs. Brawley's personal history--from a childhood in the gang-ridden streets of black Detroit to the green hallways of Grady Memorial Hospital, the largest public hospital in the UNited States, to the boardrooms of the American Cancer Society--results in a passionate view of medicine and the politics of illness in America adn a deep understanding of heath care today.;Chief complaint -- Brawleyism -- Cadillac care -- Skepticism -- A wallet biopsy -- Red juice -- Tumor promotion -- Defibrillation -- Palpitation -- Saving Mr. Huzjak -- God is calling -- Ole boys' club -- Snuffy's war -- How much protection? -- The Guillain-Barré Syndrome -- Saving Representative Silvio Conte -- The quintessential American -- Faith-based medicine -- The denominator -- From the health fair -- Behind the Blue Curtain -- False guidelines -- Algorithms for judgment -- Saying "Enough!" -- Project LEAD. Chief complaint -- Brawleyism -- Cadillac care -- Skepticism -- A wallet biopsy -- Red juice -- Tumor promotion -- Defibrillation -- Palpitation -- Saving Mr. Huzjak -- God is calling -- Ole boys' club -- Snuffy's war -- How much protection? -- The Guillain-Barré Syndrome -- Saving Representative Silvio Conte -- The quintessential American -- Faith-based medicine -- The denominator -- From the health fair -- Behind the Blue Curtain -- False guidelines -- Algorithms for judgment -- Saying "Enough!" -- Project LEAD.