The most recommended books about health care

It explained why health care in the U.S. isn't working and hasn't worked for me in important ways. I now rely more on my sense of my health and do my own research. Generally, ask for a second opinion when I don't feel comfortable with the first.

In my ongoing research into America’s dysfunctional healthcare system, Dr. Ken Fisher was a name I kept hearing. “Read his book,” said the MDs I trust. The roots of our current mess stretch back over one hundred years. Just after blood-letting was a thing. I didn’t know Otto Von Bismarck offered a nationalized healthcare plan for Germany. Though he failed, Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced the concept to England, and the NHS was born. Ken lays out the dominoes and how they fell into today’s American system. I learned how unleashing Health Savings Accounts enables a better system than the current employer-centered mess. I was thrilled Ken agreed to be a Winning Healthcare Food Fights podcast guest. 

Almost all Americans think the high cost of health care is a major problem and a large number think access to services is also a problem. 

Many, however, think that if a person has access to medical care and good insurance, quality of care is excellent. That’s sometimes true, but often not as this book describes.

There are a lot of critics of the biopharmaceutical industry who belittle the contributions of this industry by accusing it of overselling the value of new medicines, underselling safety, and having numerous conflicts of interest with academic researchers.

This book details the importance of collaborations between doctors and industry for the development of new drugs. For anyone involved in pharmaceutical R&D, it is refreshing to read accounts about successful interactions that lead to breakthroughs.

Rather than look at healthcare as “good guys vs. bad guys,” this book gives great examples of partnerships that result in saving lives.

As American veterans and academics, both authors personally and professionally know the subject of modern warfare, stress disorders, and military mental health. This book examines the invisible injuries of psychiatric casualties from combat. The authors scrutinize what they call the dark side of military mental health and, in considerable detail, expose this darkness, which they show to be systemic and multifaceted in how it inflicts wounds on military personnel. The book ends with options for changing military mental healthcare and moving toward a resilient and mentally healthy military.  I appreciate this book because it demonstrates from the perspective of insiders how military culture and practices continue to harm those veterans with invisible wounds.   

John Wennberg is a medical doctor and researcher who has spent much of the last half century analyzing the practice of medicine across the United States.

He has used Medicare patients’ treatment records to show that health delivery is often more dependent on the supply of providers and facilities in an area than the expected demand for such treatment of the area population.

He and his associates have also shown that more intensive treatment generally does not result in better care and sometimes leads to more adverse outcomes.

History is just “one damned thing after another” is a common phrase. For me this is the book which has led me to my next project. Cahill traces the story of the women who went to Russia in 1916 with the voluntary outfit the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. Set up by a Scottish surgeon, Elsie Inglis, the SWH became the biggest women’s medical organisation serving abroad in the war. The SWH women ran hospitals in France, Serbia and Russia. Here Cahill tells the story of their astonishing adventures in Russia – driving ambulances close to the firing line, retreating with the Serbian and Russian armies, surviving the cold, food shortages and the Russian Revolution – through the women’s own words. It’s staggering stuff – and great material for my next book about one of those incredible women pioneers.

Breast cancer has become ubiquitously one of the most common and dreaded cancers among women. Through this book, the author authentically and innovatively advocates for patients like her, who are diagnosed with breast cancer. She describes her journey in detail in an attempt to guide and advise others on how to deal with and manage life in the face of such a deadly diagnosis. While patients may be overwhelmed by the medical management aspects of the disease, the author reminds us to keep the human and psychological aspects in mind as a patient is after all a human being with emotions at the core.

The authors wanted to understand why compassion and empathy had left the hearts of healthcare workers and find ways to revive them. To do this, Dr. Trzeciak took two years off work to study the literature on compassion and empathy in medicine. 

His book, full of powerful examples, makes us understand the importance of compassion as a therapeutic tool, which has the advantage of being free and universal. His approach leads him to conclude that it only takes a few seconds in a medical interview for compassion to live on with all its magical effects.

A must-read for all healthcare professionals and their patients.

Dr. Makary begins with an almost unreal story of a French citizen who had the unfortunate luck of having a heart attack in the US. I won’t give it away, but used car dealers come out smelling like roses, and I did that for a while, back in my youth. Such a lesson. Americans sorely need perspective on what great care is and how to pay for it. Dr. Makary does a fantastic job outlining two little-known middlemen sucking money out of American wallets. Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Group Purchasing Organizations. Both use tactics that would make Tony Soprano smile.

What I love about this book, and why I recommend it, is while spotlighting problems, he offers solutions, and spotlights people making a difference.