May considers the overarching images that shape the convictions and daily practice of the physician. Taking a step back from the procedures and quandaries that are the focal points of many books on ethics, he explores the moral power of images in understanding the healer and defining his or her tasks. May updates his reflections on five images of the healer: parent, fighter, technician, teacher and covenanter.
Covenant Medicine Written for healthcare providers and patients, Covenant Medicine refocuses the therapeutic relationship between physician and patient onto mutual trust, honesty, and integrity. After identifying the changes in medical culture, David H. Beyda, MD, asks fellow doctors to fix what s broken with the system, being accountable, intentional, and committed to and for the good of the patient. He discusses the physician/patient relationship as a covenant, which allows the physician to consciously agree to be truly present when working with a patient and for the patient to demand such quality, thoughtful, compassionate care. Interested in the importance of the interplay between physical and spiritual health, Beyda suggests that a covenant relationship can contain transformational aspects such as faith. This allows the physician and the patient to transcend the confining definitions of illness and come to a greater understanding of the nuances of caregiving."
Get Your Career Off on the Right Track! Everything Physicians Need to Know About Employment Contracts COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS *Dangers of productivity compensation *Common incentive compensation formulas - what needs to be included *Benefits to look out for in addition to your compensation *How to determine if you are "disabled," and how the employer should NOTbe able to make this determination *What the employer can, and can't negotiate as far as benefits *Stark law traps, and how to avoid them RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS *What's really important in restrictive covenants, and what isn't worth negotiating over *Minimizing the impact of a restrictive covenant *How you can be released from a restrictive covenant *Negotiation strategies in buy-outs of restrictive covenants CALL COVERAGE *The language you must have DEFINING WHAT IS EXPECTED OF YOU *Patient contact hours expectations *What flexibility an employer will demand THE TERM OF THE AGREEMENT *Issues with hospital and managed care credentialing, and how to work around them *Grounds for termination *"Without cause" termination issues OTHER ISSUES IN AGREEMENTS TO WATCH OUT FOR *Medical record issues *Assignment of location of service *Budgetary weasel language to avoid *Malpractice issues in common provisions MALPRACTICE INSURANCE *The types of coverage, and the significance when you leave *Need for "tail coverage" *How to minimize the devastating cost of "tail coverage" PRIVATE PRACTICE ISSUES *Time to ownership *Concerns with "guaranteed" ownership *Costs of the buy-in *Methodologies for determining the buy-in, and the pros and cons of each *Why a cheap buy-in may not be in your best interest *What provisions are absolutely vital in regard to future ownership
Where were you born? Were you born at the Beth? Many thousands of Americans-Jewish and non-Jewish-were born at a hospital bearing the Star of David and named Beth Israel, Mount Sinai, or Montefiore. In the United States, health care has been bound closely to the religious impulse. Newark Beth Israel Hospital is a distinguished modern medical institution in New Jersey whose history opens a window on American health care, the immigrant experience, and urban life. Alan M. and Deborah A. Kraut tell the story of this important institution, illuminating the broader history of voluntary nonprofit hospitals created under religious auspices initially to serve poor immigrant communities. Like so many Jewish hospitals in the early half of the twentieth century, "the Beth" cared not only for its own community's poor and underprivileged, a responsibility grounded in the Jewish traditions of tzedakah ("justice") and tikkun olam ("to heal the world"), but for all Newarkers. Since it first opened its doors in 1902, the Beth has been an engine of social change. Jewish women activists and immigrant physicians founded an institution with a nonsectarian admissions policy and a welcome mat for physicians and nurses seeking opportunity denied them by anti-Semitism elsewhere. Research, too, flourished at the Beth. Here dedicated medical detectives did path-breaking research on the Rh blood factor and pacemaker development. When economic shortfalls and the Great Depression threatened the Beth's existence, philanthropic contributions from prominent Newark Jews such as Louis Bamberger and Felix Fuld, the efforts of women volunteers, and, later, income from well-insured patients saved the institution that had become the pride of the Jewish community. The Krauts tell the Beth Israel story against the backdrop of twentieth-century medical progress, Newark's tumultuous history, and the broader social and demographic changes altering the landscape of American cities. Today, the United States, in the midst of another great wave of immigration, once again faces the question of how to provide newcomers with culturally sensitive and economically accessible medical care. Covenant of Care will inform and inspire all those working to meet these demands, offering a compelling look at the creative ways that voluntary hospitals navigated similar challenges throughout the twentieth century.
A discussion of Christian ethics focuses on the physician's image as a parent, warrior against death, expert, and teacher, and the oath that guides his or her practice.
In this book the author explores the shifting philosophical boundaries of modern medical knowledge and practice occasioned by the crisis of quality-of-care, especially in terms of the various humanistic adjustments to the biomedical model. To that end he examines the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical boundaries of these medical models. He begins with their metaphysics, analyzing the metaphysical positions and presuppositions and ontological commitments upon which medical knowledge and practice is founded. Next, he considers the epistemological issues that face these medical models, particularly those driven by methodological procedures undertaken by epistemic agents to constitute medical knowledge and practice. Finally, he examines the axiological boundaries and the ethical implications of each model, especially in terms of the physician-patient relationship. In a concluding Epilogue, he discusses how the philosophical analysis of the humanization of modern medicine helps to address the crisis-of-care, as well as the question of “What is medicine?” The book’s unique features include a comprehensive coverage of the various topics in the philosophy of medicine that have emerged over the past several decades and a philosophical context for embedding bioethical discussions. The book’s target audiences include both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as healthcare professionals and professional philosophers. “This book is the 99th issue of the Series Philosophy and Medicine...and it can be considered a crown of thirty years of intensive and dynamic discussion in the field. We are completely convinced that after its publication, it can be finally said that undoubtedly the philosophy of medicine exists as a special field of inquiry.”
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
William F. May, a leading expert on medical ethics, here explores two of today's most crucial tests of the medical covenant - active euthanasia and health care reform.May begins with an incisive introduction that delineates the covenantal, or relational, nature of the practice of medicine over against the merely contractual view - the quid pro quos of the commercial buying and selling of professional services. In the subsequent chapters, May follows the implications of the medical covenant with respect to the related issues of euthanasia and health care reform. He also provides a covenantal view of professional character and virtue - what virtues we should look for in covenanted physicians and nurses - discusses the limits of the medical covenant in the face of medical futility, and examines the implications of covenant keeping for the shape of future health care reform.
LOS ANGELES TIMES AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER • The powerful memoir of a young doctor and former college athlete diagnosed with a rare disease who spearheaded the search for a cure—and became a champion for a new approach to medical research. “A wonderful and moving chronicle of a doctor’s relentless pursuit, this book serves both patients and physicians in demystifying the science that lies behind medicine.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene David Fajgenbaum, a former Georgetown quarterback, was nicknamed the Beast in medical school, where he was also known for his unmatched mental stamina. But things changed dramatically when he began suffering from inexplicable fatigue. In a matter of weeks, his organs were failing and he was read his last rites. Doctors were baffled by his condition, which they had yet to even diagnose. Floating in and out of consciousness, Fajgenbaum prayed for a second chance, the equivalent of a dramatic play to second the game into overtime. Miraculously, Fajgenbaum survived—only to endure repeated near-death relapses from what would eventually be identified as a form of Castleman disease, an extremely deadly and rare condition that acts like a cross between cancer and an autoimmune disorder. When he relapsed while on the only drug in development and realized that the medical community was unlikely to make progress in time to save his life, Fajgenbaum turned his desperate hope for a cure into concrete action: Between hospitalizations he studied his own charts and tested his own blood samples, looking for clues that could unlock a new treatment. With the help of family, friends, and mentors, he also reached out to other Castleman disease patients and physicians, and eventually came up with an ambitious plan to crowdsource the most promising research questions and recruit world-class researchers to tackle them. Instead of waiting for the scientific stars to align, he would attempt to align them himself. More than five years later and now married to his college sweetheart, Fajgenbaum has seen his hard work pay off: A treatment he identified has induced a tentative remission and his novel approach to collaborative scientific inquiry has become a blueprint for advancing rare disease research. His incredible story demonstrates the potency of hope, and what can happen when the forces of determination, love, family, faith, and serendipity collide. Praise for Chasing My Cure “A page-turning chronicle of living, nearly dying, and discovering what it really means to be invincible in hope.”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit “[A] remarkable memoir . . . Fajgenbaum writes lucidly and movingly . . . Fajgenbaum’s stirring account of his illness will inspire readers.”—Publishers Weekly
Medicine in the United States is big business. We spend 50 percent more on health care per capita than other developed countries, but a multitude of measures indicate that we are not getting health-care value for our money. In Too Big to Succeed, author Dr. Russell J. Andrews details why health care in America has become more expensive but less effective and outlines a new paradigm for health-care delivery. Too Big to Succeed describes how American medicine is on an unsustainable course: costs are increasing while benefits are deteriorating in comparison with other developed nations. Beginning with the Hippocratic Oath and the the premedical student, Andrews traces the myriad ways in which the profit motive has infiltrated American medicineincluding medical school training, current models of health-care delivery, medical professional societies, medical research, and medical drug and device development. Presenting an insiders look into the current crisis in health care, Andrews demonstrates that until both the physician and the patient return to the relationship that underlies medicine, physicians will not experience the joy of healing those who seek their help and patients will not appreciate that a good physician is a permanent part of their lives.
