Edge of Medicine The Technology That Will Change Our Lives [Paperback]

At a time when we are all gravely concerned about the cost of health care, medical technology, paradoxically, is expanding and evolving as never before. Experts agree that we are entering a Golden Age when many clinical treatments that today seem like science fiction will one day become part of a routine trip to the doctor. University of Pennsylvania Medical School Professor William Hanson offers intimate true-life stories that revise our understanding of mortality. From brainwave-operated wheelchairs, to electronic noses that diagnose disease, to surgery by remote-controlled robots and nanoscale machines that will identify and kill individual malignant cells, this is a startling and exciting account of innovations that will directly affect our health.

William Hanson, M.D.,is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He has lectured at Microsoft, The Wharton Business School, and has been interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air. He lives outside of Philadelphia.

Introduction * Deus Ex Machina * Eye in the Sky * Eternal Vigilance * A Good Sketch * Shadow-Play * The Thinkable * Which One Was What One? * Little Minds * At the Bottom * There and Back Again * Pink or Blue * The Never-Ending Story * My Father's Feet * Conclusion

The work is informative, coherent, extremely well written, and easy to read; it will make readers acutely aware of the vast number of high-tech advances with potential to have a profound, positive impact on medical diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes.Summing Up:Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals/ practitioners; general readers. CHOICE

(A) spirited, feel-good look at an area of medicine that's making progress. Kirkus

For those who look to the future, Dr. Hanson has written an enthusiastic travelogue, a guide to the universe of marvels coming soon to a hospital near you. Abigail Zuger, M.D., The NewlS´