Ordinary Medicine

Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives, and Where to Draw the Line

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Medical Science, Genetics, Health, Health Care Issues, Aging
Cover of the book Ordinary Medicine by Sharon R. Kaufman, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sharon R. Kaufman ISBN: 9780822375500
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: May 29, 2015
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Sharon R. Kaufman
ISBN: 9780822375500
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: May 29, 2015
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Most of us want and expect medicine’s miracles to extend our lives. In today’s aging society, however, the line between life-giving therapies and too much treatment is hard to see—it’s being obscured by a perfect storm created by the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, along with insurance companies. In Ordinary Medicine Sharon R. Kaufman investigates what drives that storm’s “more is better” approach to medicine: a nearly invisible chain of social, economic, and bureaucratic forces that has made once-extraordinary treatments seem ordinary, necessary, and desirable. Since 2002 Kaufman has listened to hundreds of older patients, their physicians and family members express their hopes, fears, and reasoning as they faced the line between enough and too much intervention. Their stories anchor Ordinary Medicine. Today’s medicine, Kaufman contends, shapes nearly every American’s experience of growing older, and ultimately medicine is undermining its own ability to function as a social good. Kaufman’s careful mapping of the sources of our health care dilemmas should make it far easier to rethink and renew medicine’s goals.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Most of us want and expect medicine’s miracles to extend our lives. In today’s aging society, however, the line between life-giving therapies and too much treatment is hard to see—it’s being obscured by a perfect storm created by the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, along with insurance companies. In Ordinary Medicine Sharon R. Kaufman investigates what drives that storm’s “more is better” approach to medicine: a nearly invisible chain of social, economic, and bureaucratic forces that has made once-extraordinary treatments seem ordinary, necessary, and desirable. Since 2002 Kaufman has listened to hundreds of older patients, their physicians and family members express their hopes, fears, and reasoning as they faced the line between enough and too much intervention. Their stories anchor Ordinary Medicine. Today’s medicine, Kaufman contends, shapes nearly every American’s experience of growing older, and ultimately medicine is undermining its own ability to function as a social good. Kaufman’s careful mapping of the sources of our health care dilemmas should make it far easier to rethink and renew medicine’s goals.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book The Promise of Happiness by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Legions of Boom by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Queer Phenomenology by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Speaking of the Self by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book New Organs Within Us by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Art for People's Sake by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book The Myth of Political Correctness by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Domestication Gone Wild by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Beyond Lines of Control by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Life and Times of Cultural Studies by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Steel Chair to the Head by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book People Get Ready by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Formations of United States Colonialism by Sharon R. Kaufman
Cover of the book Tropical Renditions by Sharon R. Kaufman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy