The Rise And Fall Of Modern Medicine

The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine presents a comprehensive and searching reappraisal of the science, philosophy and politics of modern medicine.

In the years following World War II, medicine won major battles against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio. In the same period it also produced treatments to control the progress of Parkinson’s, rheumatoid arthritis, and schizophrenia. It made realities of open-heart surgery, organ transplants, test-tube babies. Unquestionably, the medical accomplishments of the postwar years stand at the forefront of human endeavor, yet progress in recent decades has slowed nearly to a halt. In this judicious examination of medicine in our times, which has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, medical doctor and columnist James Le Fanu both surveys the glories of medicine in the postwar years and analyzes the factors that for the past twenty-five years have increasingly widened the gulf between achievement and advancement: the social theories of medicine, ethical issues, and political debates over health care that have hobbled the development of vaccines and discovery of new “miracle” cures. While fully demonstrating the extraordinary progress effected by medical research in the latter half of the twentieth century, Le Fanu also identifies the perils that confront medicine in the twenty-first. 16 pages of black-and-white photographs add to what the Los Angeles Times cited as “a sobering, contrarian challenge” to the “nostrum of medicine as a never-ending font of ‘miracle cures’.” “[From] a respected science writer ... important information that ... has been overlooked or ignored by many physicians.”—New Republic “Provocative and engrossing and informative.”—Houston Chronicle “Marvelously written, meticulously researched ... one of the most thought-provoking and important works to appear in recent years.”—Choice

The medical achievements of the post-war years rank as one of the supreme epochs of human endeavour. Advances in surgical technique, new ideas about the nature of disease and huge innovations in drug manufacture vanquished most common causes of early death, But, since the mid-1970s the rate of development has slowed, and the future of medicine is uncertain. How has this happened? James Le Fanu's hugely acclaimed survey of the 'twelve definitive moments' of modern medicine and the intellectual vacuum which followed them has been fully revised and updated for this edition. The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine is both riveting drama and a clarion call for change.

This penetrating study of medicine in our times addresses one of its most baffling paradoxes as it explores the widening gulf between achievement and advancement. Dr. Le Fanu takes a clear-sighted look into the darkening future of public health and medicine at the end of the 20th century. of photos.

Much of the improved survival rate from heart attack can be traced to Eugene Braunwald's work. He proved that myocardial infarction was an hours-long dynamic process which could be altered by treatment. Thomas H. Lee tells the life story of a physician whose activist approach transformed not just cardiology but the culture of American medicine.

In 1983 Graham Hughes described a syndrome in which the blood has a tendency to clot. Hughes syndrome is at the root of diverse conditions such as stroke, leg vein thrombosis and recurrent abortion. Hughes Syndrome addresses the complete range of features produced by this common disorder, which is also known as antiphospholipid syndrome. The condition can affect any organ, and is treated using commonly available drugs including low-dose aspirin and warfarin. This timely book fulfils the need for a cross-disciplinary clinical textbook and contains contributions from the leading international authorities. Hughes Syndrome should be read by anyone who might have a clinical or scientific interest in this condition: rheumatologists, haematologists, obstetricians and neurologists.