by Kathryn Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2013
An eye-opening study of a growing industry, featuring a plethora of tips and advice for any reader, from patient to...
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In this nonfiction exploration of the complexities and limitations of modern health care, Collins looks closely at the prescribing, testing and treatment practices of physicians across the nation and attempts to show readers how to be better informed when visiting the doctor.
Collins doesn’t simply offer a warning to get a second opinion, as many physicians do. Instead, she breaks down the industry phase by phase, exploring the factors that influence prescription writing, test ordering and diagnoses. For example, readers are warned in one chapter that doctors are provided incentives to sell one medication over others. An oblivious patient, particularly one who already feels convinced about a medication due to advertising and the media, might sign off on a medication routine, not knowing of the doctor’s questionable bias. The author spends an exhaustive chapter raising awareness about external factors that influence the treatment patients can expect from the industry. This chapter alone makes the book worthwhile to a reader less familiar with the modern, media-influenced world doctors and patients both face. Collins also discusses the phenomenon of “overtreatment” and the effects the growing pharmaceutical industry has had on providing treatment. Collins describes one point in her career as an emergency physician when four new drugs were entering the market every month—and not solely due to groundbreaking discoveries. Many new drugs are simply enhancements or variations of older drugs, and as they saturate the market, physicians have a difficult time keeping up with the information. The author paints a clear picture of the ways in which multiple industries feed off one another to create a system that appears to be more about profits and bottom lines than delivering premium health care to Americans. The book is not all gloom and doom, though. Collins also documents ways in which health care has changed for the better since she began her career in the emergency room nearly four decades ago, and while encouraging readers to become more informed and aware of healthy practices versus quick fixes, she points out that doctors are people, too. She ties up the work with suggestions for changes in the industry, including a larger focus on food as medication and preventive, rather than prescriptive, medicine.
An eye-opening study of a growing industry, featuring a plethora of tips and advice for any reader, from patient to physician.Pub Date: May 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988936508
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Whitegrass Press
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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