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LIFE WITHOUT DISEASE

Name: LIFE WITHOUT DISEASE
Author: William B. Schwartz
ISBN: 0-520-21467-6

THE PURSUIT OF MEDICAL UTOPIA

by William B. Schwartz ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1998

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A physician grounded in economics, ethics, and public policy sheds light on medical care issues by examining how the recent past has shaped the present and what the future is likely to offer. Schwartz, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and a former advisor to the Rand Corporation on health policy, divides his analysis into three parts: a look back over the last 50 years to the beginnings of the modern health- care industry; a short-range forecast for the years 2000 to 2020, and a longer-range one to the year 2050. He chronicles the trends of the past half century: the enormous advances in medical technology that followed the federal government’s funding of biomedical research, the revolution in health insurance, the public’s perception of health care as a right, and the current concerns over spiraling costs and the threat of health-care rationing. In the near future, he sees a continuation of current trends—fewer and larger providers, a growing corporate role in health-care delivery, and great advances in bioengineering and molecular medicine. While their initial value has been limited primarily to diagnosis and genetic screening, Schwartz spells out how in the coming decades these will lead to powerful tools for treating disease and repairing its consequences. He examines what these new and expensive high-tech therapies will offer and how they will clash with health-care cost-containment efforts, and he proposes comparing the per dollar cost of expected benefits as a method of resource allocation. By the year 2050, Schwartz predicts, molecular medicine and improvements in diet and the environment may have brought us to the threshold of a virtually disease-free world in which health-care costs would likely plateau or even fall. However, he cautions, the resulting dramatic increase in life expectancy will create new ethical and social problems requiring careful thought. A provocative analysis of the challenges facing makers of health-care policy.

Pub Date: May 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-520-21467-6

Page Count: 263

Publisher: Univ. of California

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.