Technological Medicine : The Changing World of Doctors and Patients

This book explores how the technologies of medicine are created; how society, patients, and practitioners respond to the problems and successes of their use; and how this response changes them; in order to suggest fundamental ways to alter thinking and practice in health care and thereby more effectively meet the challenges of living with technological medicine.

Advances in medicine have brought us the stethoscope, artificial kidneys, and computerized health records. They have also changed the doctor-patient relationship. This book explores how the technologies of medicine are created and how we respond to the problems and successes of their use. Stanley Joel Reiser, MD, walks us through the ways medical innovations exert their influence by discussing a number of selected technologies, including the X-ray, ultrasound, and respirator. Reiser creates a new understanding of thinking about how health care is practiced in the United States and thereby suggests new methods to effectively meet the challenges of living with technological medicine. As healthcare reform continues to be an intensely debated topic in America, Technological Medicine shows us the pros and cons of applying technological solutions health and illness.