A renowned diagnostician shares stories of his patients and explores the importance of the human factor in medicine. In The Art of Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital’s internist Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong draws on his vast dossier of personal cases and five decades as a clinician to examine the core principles of a patient-centered approach to diagnosis and treatment. While HPK, as he is fondly known, recognizes and applauds the many invaluable innovations in medical technology, he makes the point that as disease and its management grow increasingly complex, physicians must learn to develop an arsenal of more basic skills, actively using the arts of seeing, hearing, palpation, empathy, and advocacy to provide a more humane and holistic form of care. Aimed at medical practitioners, aspiring doctors, or anyone interested in health and medicine, this book also contains interviews with more than a dozen of HPK’s patients, as well as short essays that explore the thinking of his professional colleagues on the art of medicine.

Edward Golub, distinguished researcher and former professor of immunology, shows that major advances in medicine are caused by changes in the way scientists describe disease. Bleeding, sweating, and other treatments we consider barbaric were standard treatments for centuries because they conformed to a conception of disease shared by patients and doctors. Scientific breakthroughs in the understanding of disease in the nineteenth century transformed treatment and the goals of medicine. Golub argues that the ongoing revolution in molecular genetics has opened the door to the "biology of complexity," again transforming our view of disease. This thought-provoking, timely book reveals a crucial but overlooked role of science in medicine, and offers a new vision for the goals of both science and medicine as we enter the twenty-first century.

The Limits of Medical Paternalism defines and morally assesses paternalistic interventions, especially in the context of modern medicine and health care, particular emphasis is given to the analysis of the conceptual background of the paternalism issue. In this book an anti-paternalistic view is presented and defended.

The medical establishment has become a major threat to health, says Ivan Illich. He outlines the causes of iatrogenic diseases.

From the author of Setting Limits comes a challenging exploration of the proper goals of medicine in our rapidly changing society--a work destined to spark debate and influence policy for years to come.

A provocative call to rethink America's values in health care.