Hippocrates' Shadow [Paperback]

Aclear-sighted, heartfelt, and humane story of the needless tests and treatments that cripple healthcare....as a guide to good medicine, it may help us get back to the essence of what good doctors do: be with patients in healing. —Samuel Shem, M.D., author ofThe House of GodandThe Spirit of the Place

InHippocrates’ Shadow, Dr. David H. Newman upends our understanding of the doctor-patient relationship and offers a new paradigm of honesty and communication. He sees a disregard for the healing power of the bond that originated with Hippocrates, and, ultimately, a disconnect between doctors and their oath to do no harm.

Exposing the patterns of secrecy and habit in modern medicine’s carefully protected subculture, Dr. Newman argues that doctors and patients cling to tradition and yield to demands for pills or tests. Citing fascinating studies that show why antibiotics for sore throats are almost always unnecessary; how cough syrup is rarely more effective than a sugar pill; and why CPR is violent, invasive—and almost always futile, this thought-provoking book cuts to the heart of what really works, and what doesn’t, in medicine.

 David H. Newman, M.D., runs a clinical research program and teaches at Columbia University and in the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital Center. He has also been widely published in biomedical journals. In 2005, as a Major in the Army Reserves, he was deployed to Iraq, where he received an Army Commendation Medal. He lives in New York City. InHippocrates' Shadow,Dr. Newman sits us down for the doctor-patient chat we've been longing for -- a refreshingly candid, daringly inquisitive discussion of the uneasiness that exists on both sides of the medical care equation these days. There is a cure for what ails us, and Newman doses it in thoughtful, perceptive proposals that make good sense. In the end, everyone fló!