by Vivian Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 2020
A health professional turns an experienced eye toward sensible, ground-level actions to make medical care better and cheaper.
Physician, scientist, and health care administrator Lee charts a new and improved system that lowers costs while providing more efficient service.
Lee, president of Health Platforms at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), is appalled by the current state of health care in the U.S., where spending is "rapidly approaching $4 trillion per year," far more than in countries that provide universal coverage—and our results are worse. In a nation in which 10% of citizens don’t have or can’t afford health insurance (and millions are underinsured), the landscape is dire: We waste 30 cents of every dollar spent on health care, 20% of medical care is unnecessary, medical errors are the third-leading cause of death, we forego preventative care, and we push high-cost, branded drugs instead of generics. Although Lee sometimes drifts into insurance-speak—"the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement pilot project"—she mostly presents sensible options: "Pay for results instead of action" (collaring costs, predicating fees for results); set expectations of zero tolerance for serious medical errors; giant providers (such as Medicare and the Veterans Health Administration) should negotiate prices; take cues from successful "employer-driven and government-run health systems"; and understand that it will take time to build "on the vital roles that everyone needs to play.” Lee believes that the fee-for-service models undercut doctors’ intrinsic motivations—such as purpose and mastery—and that it is crucial for patients to become fully engaged in their health care. Of particular value are the action plans that conclude each chapter, which contain countless helpful suggestions for patients, consumers, physicians, health care professionals, health care payers, and policymakers. These include tapping into big data (with buffers for privacy), a 10-point plan for employers, and a health system that learns from its results and acts on them.
A health professional turns an experienced eye toward sensible, ground-level actions to make medical care better and cheaper.Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-324-00667-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
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Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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