This is the story of Dr. Eldon Lee and his first practice in Hazelton, BC. Lee was the region's first obstetrician, and he delivered more than 4,500 babies. In an era of corporate medicine and malpractice insurance, Lee's story is a refreshing reminder of what doctoring is all about. In the 1940s, Eldon left the family ranch to join the air force. He returned to ranching with brother Todd after the war only to discover needs that his rural world could not satisfy. At 25, he headed for Seattle, where the University of Washington Medical School awaited. Seattle's King County and Vancouver's General and Shaughnessy hospitals prepared him for his lifelong odyssey.
In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Euan Ashley, Stanford professor of medicine and genetics, brings the breakthroughs of precision medicine to vivid life through the real diagnostic journeys of his patients and the tireless efforts of his fellow doctors and scientists as they hunt to prevent, predict, and beat disease. Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the price of genome sequencing has dropped at a staggering rate. It’s as if the price of a Ferrari went from $350,000 to a mere forty cents. Through breakthroughs made by Dr. Ashley’s team at Stanford and other dedicated groups around the world, analyzing the human genome has decreased from a heroic multibillion dollar effort to a single clinical test costing less than $1,000. For the first time we have within our grasp the ability to predict our genetic future, to diagnose and prevent disease before it begins, and to decode what it really means to be human. In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Ashley details the medicine behind genome sequencing with clarity and accessibility. More than that, with passion for his subject and compassion for his patients, he introduces readers to the dynamic group of researchers and doctor detectives who hunt for answers, and to the pioneering patients who open up their lives to the medical community during their search for diagnoses and cures. He describes how he led the team that was the first to analyze and interpret a complete human genome, how they broke genome speed records to diagnose and treat a newborn baby girl whose heart stopped five times on the first day of her life, and how they found a boy with tumors growing inside his heart and traced the cause to a missing piece of his genome. These patients inspire Dr. Ashley and his team as they work to expand the boundaries of our medical capabilities and to envision a future where genome sequencing is available for all, where medicine can be tailored to treat specific diseases and to decode pathogens like viruses at the genomic level, and where our medical system as we know it has been completely revolutionized.
Through humor, anecdotes and intelligent insights the changes in medicine and the relationship between patient and physician are outlined in a manner that is truly an important historical work. "Transitions...A Doctors Odyssey" is the personal journey of a well known physician that outlines break-throughs in medical history and patient care.
An Irish Doctor's Odyssey, Dr Colbert's first book of memoirs, is about middle-class Catholic Ireland in the 1940s and tells the true story of a country boy born in Waterford, sent off at nine years of age to board with the Dominicans in Newbridge and graduating as a doctor in UCD in 1957 while still holding onto the dream of working with the poor. Turning down the prospect of a glittering career he went instead to work in Africa and the Caribbean with his young wife, Doreen, driven by a long-nurtured desire to serve as a missionary doctor. His adventures bring you to the heart of Africa, the sands of the Sahara, the lush islands of the Caribbean and the world of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the book, Dr Colbert shares stories of medical dilemmas, mistakes and triumphs; of the people he worked with; and of the people he served, bringing the reader with him as he describes incidents that are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always fascinating. But this is more than a travel book. Love, faith and understanding shine through the pages. An Irish Doctor's Odyssey will make you weep and laugh and, above all, show that dreams can come true. It is certainly easy to read but definitely not easy to put down. Book jacket.
