Sentara has come a long way since the Retreat for the Sick opened in 1888. From its origins as a modest haven for Norfolk’s poor, Sentara has grown into a multi-faceted health system providing health care across Virginia and North Carolina. Sentara was fortunate to have generations of visionary leadership necessary to conceive of growth on such a broad scale. Too often visionaries wreck on the rocks of reality, but Sentara has been equally fortunate to have prudent leaders willing to do so...

Throughout history, many doctors have worked outside the occupation for which they were originally trained. Not Your Ordinary Doctor reveals sixty such medical truants who found fame in fields other than medicine.Meet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes; cringe as Stalin tortures each of his eight doctors; follow John Keats, who abandons medicine to pursue his literary career. Within these pages are doctors who attended rulers such as Elizabeth I, Napoleon and ...

The human body is thought of conventionally as a biological entity, with its longevity, morbidity, size and even appearance determined by genetic factors immune to the influence of society or culture. Since the mid-1980s, however, there has been a rising awareness of how our bodies, and our perception of them, are influenced by the social, cultural and material contexts in which humans live. Drawing on studies of sex and gender, education, governance, the economy, and religion, Chris Shill...

Drawing upon real accounts of negligence, incompetence, and distrust, this book seeks to identify the key competencies of a good doctor, the ways in which medical care fails, and the roadblocks to ensuring that every licensed doctor is capable. Arguing that it is possible to improve patient care—by lifting the veils of secrecy and better informing patients, by establishing more effective ways of checking doctors' competence, and by ensuring that medical watchdogs protect the public—this di...

Over 25 million people in the U.S. alone have benefited from statins--such drugs as Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Pravachol, and other cholesterol-lowering medicines--in preventing stroke, heart attack, and other forms of coronary heart disease. But how did these remarkable, life-saving drugs come into being? In Triumph of the Heart, Dr. Jie Jack Li, a medicinal chemist and expert on drug discovery, tells for the first time the fascinating story of statins. Drawn from discussions with ...

Over the last five centuries, the development of modern weapons and warfare has created an entirely new set of challenges for practitioners in the field of military medicine. Between Flesh and Steel traces the historical development of military medicine from the Middle Ages to modern times.Military historian Richard A. Gabriel focuses on three key elements: the modifications in warfare and weapons whose increased killing power radically changed the medical challenges that bat...

Trauma is a disease of epidemic proportions that preys on the young, killing more Americans up to age thirty-seven than all other afflictions combined. Every year an estimated 2.8 million people are hospitalized for injuries and more than 180,000 people die. We take for granted that no matter how or where we are injured, someone will call 911 and trained first responders will show up to insert IVs, stop the bleeding, and swiftly deliver us to a hospital staffed by doctors and nurses with t...

Did you know that nutmeg can kill you? Are you curious about what agent could make circulation suddenly fail?In 1893, this text for students and practitioners of forensic medicine and toxicology was state of the art. Today it is a curiosity for those interested in medical history and for authors writing period crime novels.Particularly appalling to our 21st century sensibilities is that the 19th century equivalent of a roufie (drugging someone for the purposes of rape) was ...

Blood in Motion is a textbook in Cardiovascular Science. It sets out to introduce, entice and explain the cardiovascular system to the reader using a classical system in teaching anatomy, physiology, general operation and specific systems. It is specifically designed to support the interests of students, experienced physiologists and clinicians.The book is subdivided into three parts, comprising a total of 11 chapters. Part I presents an historical perspective of cardiovas...

I never expected to enter the frightening world of cancer. Lannie had always been wholly healthy. He rarely even had a cold. He was a lifelong nonsmoker with no known cancer risks. Our two children were launched and doing well. Lannie had retired; I continued to work full-time teaching nursing. God blessed us with wonderful grandchildren. Life was calm, peaceful, and fulfilling. So nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for the shock of being suddenly catapulted into the horrific world o...

This book tells of the life of an extraordinary physician who overcame a teenage hunting accident in which he lost his left thumb and left eye. Through hard work and diligence, he became an excellent surgeon and medical leader in Central Illinois. The highlight of his career was the two years during World War II that he spent above the Arctic Circle repairing injured soldiers. After the war, he returned to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, to become a leader in the medical community. He was fr...