This full-color book tells the story of American healthcare history through color photographs of real objects from museums and both famous and little-known medical discoveries.
Healthcare history is more than leeches and drilling holes in skulls. It is stories of scientific failures and triumphs. Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures presents a visual and narrative history of health and medicine in the United States, tracing paradigm shifts such as the introduction of anesthesia, the adoption of germ theory, and advances in public health. In this book, museum artifacts are windows into both famous and ordinary people’s experiences with healthcare throughout American history, from patent medicines and faith healing to laboratory science. With 50 vignette-like chapters and 50 color photographs, Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures showcases little-known objects that illustrate the complexities of our relationship with health, such as a bottle from the short period when the Schlitz beer company sold lager that was supposed to be high in vitamin D during the first vitamin craze. It also highlights famous moments in medicine, such as the discovery of penicillin, as illustrated by a mold-culturing pan. Each artifact tells some piece of the story of how its creators or users approached fundamental questions in health. Some of these questions are, “What causes sickness, and what causes health?” and “How much can everyone master the principles of health, and how much do laypeople need to rely on outside authorities?” Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures describes the days when surgeons worked on patients without anesthesia and wiped their scalpels on their coats, and the day that EMTs raced to provide help when the Twin Towers were attacked in 2001. The book discusses social and cultural influences that have shaped healthcare, providing insight relevant to today’s problems and colorful anecdotes along the way.
Health disparities exist between races in America. These inequalities are cataloged in numerous studies, reports, conferences, articles, seminars, and keynote speeches. Various studies include reports on income, health insurance, cultural differences between patients and their physicians, language barriers, and biological “racial” differences in the discourse of health disparities. On Race and Medicine: Insider Perspectives is a collection of enlightening personal essays written by an interdisciplinary group of scholars, physicians, and medical school deans. They invite readers to evaluate disparities differently when considering race in American healthcare. They address the very real, everyday circumstances of healthcare differences where race is concerned, and shine light on the realities of race itself, inequalities in healthcare, and on the very way these American complexities can be discussed and considered. This is not another chronicle of studies cataloging differences in health care based on race. The essays are narrated from practical and personal stances examining disparate health between the races. Decreasing inequalities in health for racial minorities, who are sicker in so many areas—diabetes, heart disease, stage of cancer, etc.—is financially good for everyone. But understanding health inequalities in race is of even greater human importance. How race intersects with medicine is striking given the existence of racial issues throughout the rest of American history. These authors attempt to explain and explore the truth about health disparities, which is necessary before we can turn our national attention toward eliminating differences in health based on race.
"After their sequestering on reservations across the West, American Indians suffered from appalling rates of disease and morbidity. While the United States Indian Service (Bureau of Indian Affairs) provided some services prior to 1908, it was not until then that the Indian Medical Service was established for the purpose of providing services to American Indians. Born in an era of assimilation and myths of vanishing Indians, the Indian Medical Service provided emergency and curative care with little forethought of preventive medicine. If You Knew the Conditions argues that the U.S. Congress provided little more than basic, curative treatment, and that this Congressional parsimony is reflected in the services (or lack thereof) provided by the Indian Medical Service." "David H. DeJong considers the mediocre results of the Indian Medical Service from a cultural perspective. He argues that, rather than considering a social conservation model of medicine, the Indian Service focused on curative medicine from a strictly Western perspective. This failure to appreciate the unique American Indian cultural norms and values associated with health and well-being led to a resistance from American Indians which seemingly justified parsimonious Congressional appropriations and initiated a cycle of benign neglect. If You Knew the Conditions examines the impact of the long-standing Congressional mandate of cultural assimilation, combined with the Congressional desire to abolish the Indian Service, on the degree and extent of disease in Indian Country."--BOOK JACKET.
Medical Licensing and Discipline in America traces the evolution of the U.S. medical licensing system from its historical antecedents in the 18th and 19th century to its modern structure. David A. Johnson and Humayun J. Chaudhry provide an organizational history of the Federation of State Medical Boards within the broader context of the development of America’s state-based system. As the national organization representing the interests of the individual state medical boards, the Federation has been at the forefront of developments in licensing, discipline, and regulation impacting the medical profession, medical education, and health policy within the United States. The narrative shifts between micro- and macro-level developments in the evolution of America’s medical licensing system, blending national context with state-specific and Federation initiatives. For example, the book documents such milestones as the national shift toward greater public accountability by state medical boards as evidenced by California’s inclusion of public members on its medical board, New Mexico’s requirement for continuing medical education by physicians as a condition for license renewal and the Federation’s policy development work advocating for both initiatives among all state medical boards. The book begins by examining the 18th and 19th century origins of the modern state-based medical regulatory system, including the reinstitution of licensing boards in the latter part of the 19th century and the early challenges facing boards, e.g., license portability, examinations, physician impostors, inter-professional tensions among physicians, etc. Medical Licensing and Discipline in America picks up the story of the Federation and its role in the major issue of licensing and discipline in the 20th century: uniformity in medical statute, evaluation of international medical graduates, nationally administered examinations for licensure, etc.
This book examines how an Ethics Review Committee using today's ethical standards as articulated in The Nuremburg Code, and the WHO/CIOMS International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects, might assess the scientific and ethical design of Edward Jenner's first experimental vaccine experiment. It explores the potential risks and benefits to young James, the adequacy of the preliminary evidence that Jenner used to justify performing his experiment, and how he might have complied with requirements for informed consent. In addition to its historical interest for 18th century England and for the origins of today's biomedical research ethics standards, the book is significant as a case study in the ethics of basic vaccine research. It thus raises relevant questions about today's vaccine research, particularly HIV vaccine research.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “A tour de force . . . a comprehensive and suitably furious guide to the political landscape of American healthcare . . . persuasive, shocking.”—The New York Times America’s Bitter Pill is Steven Brill’s acclaimed book on how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing—and failing to change—the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. It’s a fly-on-the-wall account of the titanic fight to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America’s largest, most dysfunctional industry. It’s a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his trailblazing Time magazine cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation. But by chance America’s Bitter Pill ends up being much more—because as Brill was completing this book, he had to undergo urgent open-heart surgery. Thus, this also becomes the story of how one patient who thinks he knows everything about healthcare “policy” rethinks it from a hospital gurney—and combines that insight with his brilliant reporting. The result: a surprising new vision of how we can fix American healthcare so that it stops draining the bank accounts of our families and our businesses, and the federal treasury. Praise for America’s Bitter Pill “An energetic, picaresque, narrative explanation of much of what has happened in the last seven years of health policy . . . [Brill] has pulled off something extraordinary.”—The New York Times Book Review “A thunderous indictment of what Brill refers to as the ‘toxicity of our profiteer-dominated healthcare system.’ ”—Los Angeles Times “A sweeping and spirited new book [that] chronicles the surprisingly juicy tale of reform.”—The Daily Beast “One of the most important books of our time.”—Walter Isaacson “Superb . . . Brill has achieved the seemingly impossible—written an exciting book about the American health system.”—The New York Review of Books
Museum exhibitions focusing on Native American history have long been curator controlled. However, a shift is occurring, giving Indigenous people a larger role in determining exhibition content. In Decolonizing Museums, Amy Lonetree examines the co
Victims of polio recount their experiences, in chapters such as Of Iron Lungs and Wheelchairs, Under the Knife, Adult Polio, Old Timers, Complete (or Almost Complete) Recovery, Active Lives, and Late Effects. The 35 stories range between the 1930s and the 1990s and reveal much about people's perception of the disease, the medical care and providers, the social reaction, and the evolution of memory through the years. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
At its most basic, historic preservation is about keeping old places alive, in active use, and relevant to the needs of communities today. As cities across America experience a remarkable renaissance, and more and more young, diverse families choose to live, work, and play in historic neighborhoods, the promise and potential of using our older and historic buildings to revitalize our cities is stronger than ever. This urban resurgence is a national phenomenon, boosting cities from Cleveland to Buffalo and Portland to Pittsburgh. Experts offer a range of theories on what is driving the return to the city—from the impact of the recent housing crisis to a desire to be socially engaged, live near work, and reduce automobile use. But there’s also more to it. Time and again, when asked why they moved to the city, people talk about the desire to live somewhere distinctive, to be some place rather than no place. Often these distinguishing urban landmarks are exciting neighborhoods—Miami boasts its Art Deco district, New Orleans the French Quarter. Sometimes, as in the case of Baltimore’s historic rowhouses, the most distinguishing feature is the urban fabric itself. While many aspects of this urban resurgence are a cause for celebration, the changes have also brought to the forefront issues of access, affordable housing, inequality, sustainability, and how we should commemorate difficult history. This book speaks directly to all of these issues. In The Past and Future City, Stephanie Meeks, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, describes in detail, and with unique empirical research, the many ways that saving and restoring historic fabric can help a city create thriving neighborhoods, good jobs, and a vibrant economy. She explains the critical importance of preservation for all our communities, the ways the historic preservation field has evolved to embrace the challenges of the twenty-first century, and the innovative work being done in the preservation space now. This book is for anyone who cares about cities, places, and saving America’s diverse stories, in a way that will bring us together and help us better understand our past, present, and future.