The Great American Medical Show: The Good, the Not-So-Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I received a copy of this ebook as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Perhaps relevant context: from roughly age four until my early twenties, I intended to become a doctor. I eventually made it all the way to medical school before deciding that perhaps I should stop allowing a preschool-aged version of myself to dictate my life choices. I left medicine, moved countries, and am now pursuing a PhD from the comfort of a private library with no insurance paperwork in sight.

That background made me an interested reader for this book. Dr. Patten writes from a perspective that spans patient, physician, advocate, and critic, and there is a great deal here that I think would be valuable for the general public to know. The book does a good job show more highlighting both the remarkable successes of modern medicine and the structural problems that continue to undermine patient care.

At times, I felt the author's perspective was shaped by experiences that are not necessarily universal. Age, wealth, insurance status, gender, race, and geography all profoundly influence how people experience healthcare, particularly in the United States. As a result, some of the framing occasionally felt a little dated or incomplete.

Even so, the central message remains important. Modern medicine is capable of extraordinary things, but that does not mean the system is functioning as well as it could, nor that critical engagement and reform are no longer necessary.

An informative and thoughtful read, even when I did not fully agree with all of its assumptions. show less

As a medical librarian, I will take any and all books on doctoring, physicians and devour them with the same gusto I will forever reserve for Boston Market chicken and Mac and Cheese (RIP).

That being said, I adore Dr Patten for his unwavering support of medical libraries and for citing all the paper he quotes in this book. (I wish there was a PMID but I am nitpicking: he had a DOI, I’ll take it!)

We differ on philosophy of medicine, but he sounds like one of those good old physicians that we are losing at too quick of a pace to replace, and medicine is suffering for it.

It’s a good book — growing up in a medical household you kinda forget that other, weird non medical people exist. And so my love for this book may not be the same show more as a poor innocent person who never had very weird and gross dinner time conversations (and for that, I say, it’s your loss.)

Please keep writing, Dr Patten. Keep teaching, keep mentoring. We need you.

Kristin Chapman
Very proud medical librarian, Danbury Hospital. show less