Faculty Bibliography

People lie to doctors, which is not surprising when one considers the questions that doctors ask. Although doctors expect to be lied to, they resent the practice

A short story is presented

The advantage to having a pediatrician in the family was demonstrated when a child choked at dinner. The pediatrician's husband believes that she overreacted, causing the child to undergo medical tests that might have been unnecessary. An account of the event is given

Perri Klass reviews 'Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making' by David J. Rothman

Perri Klass offers his diary of the 7th International Conference on AIDS

There was criticism of the United States as speakers attacked the Bush administration's policy preventing travellers infected with the HIV virus from entering the country. (However, early this month the Bush administration announced its plan to allow people infected with AIDS to enter the United States so long as they did not intend to seek permanent residence.) A Florence newspaper, La Gazzetta, has the best headline of the day: 'Viaggio Nel Pianeta Del Congresso Sull'AIDS' (Voyage on the Planet of the AIDS Congress). You have to be on time to get a seat this morning. [Luc Montagnier], of the Institut Pasteur, is introduced as the discoverer of HIV, another reminder of the [Robert Gallo] controversy. He is talking about what specific signals bring about the death of T-cells, which is the hallmark of immunodeficiency in AIDS

Honesty and respect make for the best doctor-patient relationship. Ten ways to help a doctor be a better doctor for individuals are discussed, including explaining an ailment clearly, being on time for an appointment and taking medicines as directed

A woman recalls her experience with trying to keep a four-month-old baby alive. Even though the professionals have all the training that they need, there will be times when all they do is not enough

For most people, contact with the medical system is fraught with anxiety-powerlessness; a sense of helplessness in the face of unfamiliar jargon; terror, always, of disaster. In this collection of fiction about medicine, these themes recur, as if many of the writers hoped, by making fiction out of this experience, to give back to frightened patients some ability to speak for themselves, to express their fear and their anger. Eloquent voices describe the sensations of people in the grip of illness, of people watching their relatives struggle with hospitals. The collection is organized by theme; there are, for example, sections on 'Women,' on 'Disability,' on 'the Medical Environment.' In some ways, this gives the book an initially disconcerting aspect, the air of a textbook rather than an anthology of fiction. However, there are no reading-comprehension questions at the ends of these sections, and in fact this volume should be read to appreciate the complexity of both fiction and medicine, rather than to teach lessons about any specific topic. The variety of fiction offered here is too rich, too articulate, too powerful to be used to point out specific morals

The complicated process of gathering and examining urine, stool, blood and sputum specimens is discussed. Problems surrounding the examination of a blood culture from a Baby Girl Williams illustrate the difficulties