Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2022 -

Peskin (Univ. of Pennsylvania), an academic neurologist who also writes for the New York Times, has written a hugely entertaining and informative book describing the fragile brain and the long history of research into causes and treatments of brain dysfunction, seamlessly integrating stories of neurology patients with historical accounts of the people who have worked tirelessly to understand and cure such ailments. In both dimensions, Peskin's focus is on the people--the patients and the scientists, in all their uniqueness and sometimes quirky lives. Explaining Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Peskin describes with equal compassion the personal details of a patient who suddenly experienced the Creutzfeldt-Jakob symptoms and died less than one month from his retirement, and the scientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934), who identified the neuron as the functional unit of the nervous system in the late 19th century. Readers also learn that as a youth, Cajal spent time in a local jail for blowing up his neighbor's property with a homemade canon. The book is full of such entertaining vignettes, which help to personalize Peskin's fascinating descriptions of the disorders and the science behind understanding them. This is a page-turner that any reader will enjoy while learning about some of the most monumental neuroscientific advances in the modern era.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty and professionals. General readers.

This is a powerful, informative, and intensely personal story of a recently retired neurologist diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). Gibbs (Oregon Health and Science Univ.) began noticing subtle changes in his attention span and short-term memory while also experiencing olfactory hallucinations. For Gibbs, roses didn't smell like roses--they smelled like baking bread. In writing this text, Gibbs inscribes his legacy as a practicing neurologist through the lens of advocacy. He advocates for genetic testing and early diagnosis through spinal fluid testing, positron emission tomography (PET) scans, and blood tests (specifically, the C2N test, also known as PrecivityAD). Gibbs is a staunch advocate for raising awareness of the benefit of early diagnosis within the community and among medical practitioners. His purpose is to "... buy valuable time on this end of the journey." Readers are enabled to become Gibbs's companions on his path. His phrase, "sneak preview" hints that the ability to deal with feelings varies widely, and that what is observed and what is actually felt may differ. Various chapters remind readers that risk factors are not determinants, memory is the brain's dead reckoning system, verbal memory is essential to communications, and multitasking will become single tasking. Crucially, too, Gibbs demonstrates throughout how to build cognitive reserve.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and professionals. Students in two-year technical programs. General readers.

Looking back over the past fifty years, authors Dr. Skip Trump and science journalist Eric Rosenthal together recall their memories of the advances made against the dreaded diagnosis of hopeless cancer. The enactment of the National Cancer Act (NCA) in 1971 increased funding for treatment, research, and education, while various provisions of the new law strengthened the role of the National Cancer Institutes (NCI) in running clinical trials, amassing large data stores, and sharing of research. Decades before, with the emergence of the Korean War, certain physicians had elected to join the cancer community in lieu of serving in a foreign war zone. These same individuals now became noted and honored contributors in the new medical war against cancer. The remarkable progress that resulted, from early application of chemotherapies against pediatric leukemias to the current range of available medical treatments, is retold here, along with mentions of the myriad physicians, researchers, philanthropists, politicians, and patients recognized as the infantry in the quest to conquer cancer. The narrative features specifics about medications currently used and in development, the NCI, the current role of public information and advertising, and challenges still facing both patient and oncologist. This absorbing book records a half-century's details of accelerating inroads in battling metastatic disease.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Limitations to control of infections originating in hospitals have long been evident. Antibiotic-resistant organisms and their ability to transfer associated genes are increasingly problematic, and this rise of so-called superbugs alarms health care professionals on a global scale. Including contributions from medical historians, infection control specialists, and policy makers, this book presents the methods from past to present that have been and still are used to minimize the spread of infections in hospitals, providing some insight into where infection control improvements can be made. The book is organized into five parts, each comprising a historical chapter and an updating one: policy, medical training, clinical practice, control in the laboratory, and projections for future control of antibiotic resistance, especially given the threats posed by such bacteria as MRSA (staph) and Clostridium. The editors summarize current challenges for key players in a jointly authored conclusion. A great read, this book should appeal to everyone involved in health care at all stages of their careers, including bacteriologists, caregivers, and especially administrators, and will reinforce understanding of the longstanding importance of prevention and control of infection. Although many examples and data sets were collected in the UK, the book is relatable to health care systems everywhere.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Here portrayed by his great-grandson, Kinyoun is an American public health pioneer. Houts traces Kinyoun's professional career beginning with extensive travels from the 1870s onward, including advanced scientific training in Europe with Koch and Pasteur, followed by a triumphant return to the US bringing the germ theory of disease as well as drugs and vaccines to the backward American practice of medicine. Kinyoun founded the US Hygiene Laboratory (eventually the NIH) and a biologics program (eventually the FDA). In 1909, he diagnosed a deadly epidemic in California as bubonic plague--the first documented outbreak in the New World. For this he was vilified and even accused of terrorism by California partisans while caught between federal and state jurisdictional control of the disease he had diagnosed. Houts presents exciting context on the manifestations and spread of plague through several epidemics, ending in San Francisco. Although Kinyoun's hygiene lab prospered and was moved to Washington, he personally became a victim, and the story gets ugly: he lost his position, control of his laboratory, and his good name. Kinyoun died in 1919 virtually unknown, never achieving his place among the greats of infectious disease research and prevention. The book strikes a good balance between the medicine and politics of public health practice.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Hoff, professor of management, health care systems, and health policy at Northeastern University, investigates the specialty of family medicine through archival research and interviews conducted with practicing family physicians. Family medicine arose in the mid-20th century to distinguish family doctors in status and income from general practitioners (GP) and from newer specialists. With the ideal of practicing inclusive medicine, the intent was that family medicine would concern itself holistically with patients, their families, and their communities. By the 1980s and 1990s, the field had redefined itself as primary care and became the engine of emerging HMOs and managed care. Pressures from within and outside the specialty, however, distorted its goals and practices. For example, the declining acceptance of 1990s-style HMOs and increasingly treating patients, rather than families, in commercial settings limited doctors' ability to practice the ideals of family medicine. Accordingly, fewer medical students opted for the specialty, and the number of training programs declined. Telehealth and wearable devices providing continuous biomarker readings currently jeopardize not only the practice of family medicine but the very idea of it. Hoff believes in it, nonetheless, and provides suggestions for its continuance but admits that the odds of this specialty's survival are even at best. This is an excellent book.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Ambron (emer., Columbia Univ.) has written an extensive yet digestible examination of the state of known science concerning pain. He walks readers through lessons in basic neuroscience, i.e., outlines of nervous system anatomy and microbiology, and includes discussions of higher-level systems and cognitive processes. These help contextualize the many unique properties of pain perception, all while keeping an eye toward how basic biology can contribute to understanding larger societal issues regarding pain, notably suffering, management, and therapy. The book has two parts and is organized into 13 chapters, the first six of which cover biological perspectives; the latter seven chapters are devoted to pain modulation at the neural, pharmacological, and cognitive levels. The final chapter offers a synopsis of the current targets of scientific inquiry and speculation on potential cutting-edge technologies. A strength of this author is in being able to communicate complex themes to a general audience without needless handholding. Thus, this book may be of specific interest to students at any level who are interested in medicine, neuroscience, or biology but should also be accessible to anyone interested in the mechanisms of pain perception and treatment, provided they do not mind learning some biology on the way.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In The Secret Body, Davis (Univ. of Manchester) connects the past, present, and future of scientific advancements with aspects of human health. Readers are introduced to particular scientific research tools through stories of how each tool was developed and how it has been improved over time. By focusing on the successes as well as the struggles researchers responsible for each tool experienced, Davis personalizes the science and fosters an appreciation for the complexities of scientific discovery. Topics covered include the development of cell sorting machines and how they might be used to help generate a deep understanding of all cell types within the body; the use of MRI technology to create detailed maps of brain neurons; the development of optogenetics to investigate the control of neuronal activity with light; and understanding of the interconnectedness of human health, the gut microbiome, and the immune system. Appropriate for both scientific and general audiences, the book leaves readers with a deep sense of the impact that the large volume of data being produced through these technologies will have, not only on human health itself but also on decisions regarding health.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Following this slim, concise, accessible, recently updated, and nicely illustrated introduction to the coronavirus may take some effort, but readers are sure to find it well worthwhile. Professor of biomedical informatics and mathematical genomics Rabadan (Columbia Univ.) clearly lays out the science behind understanding viruses in general and coronaviruses in particular. Some viruses--polio, smallpox, influenza--take their place in history as bullies, mutants, hijackers, killers, invaders, shapeshifters, and thieves. Encased by its own crown (the corona), SARS-COV-2, the submicroscopic coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, is only the latest (crowned) king. Readers learn the language of viral epidemiologists and public health experts: basic reproduction number, infection fatality rate, herd immunity, and even immune memory are explained, as are flattening the curve, super-spreader, and excess mortality. The text sheds crucial light on the practical problem of nomenclature. Rabadan also recounts the remarkably steep virological learning curve that emerged after the related SARS outbreak of 2002-03. Viruses have their history too, and the fascinating penultimate chapter reminds readers of the brutal influenza pandemic of a century ago. The book concludes with the author's comments on diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19 and the role vaccines and the immune system play in confronting this virus.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This book offers a straightforward, well-organized introduction to the communication skills needed for an early (outpatient) approach to integrated palliative care, illustrating an innovative model developed, implemented, and tested since 2003 under the direction of the four authors (all clinician faculty affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital) to foster improved quality of life, decreased depression, and informed decision-making on the part of all involved in a metastatic cancer care situation. The emphasis is on collaborative problem-solving by clinicians, oncologists, hospice practitioners, patients, and their family caregivers and how to interpret for all parties during joint visits. The text is presented in the form of a guidebook, organized into five chapters that correspond to the successive challenges expected following a cancer diagnosis: "Adapting to the Diagnosis," "Pairing Hopes and Worries," "Living Well with Serious Illness," "Deepening Prognostic Awareness," and "Acknowledging End of Life." Chapter summary reviews, sample case studies, suggested dialogues, typical questions, and tips for helping patients with each challenge are provided throughout. The text includes illustrative charts, graphs, figures, diagrams, and tables; for example, a helpful table summarizing the suggested range of practical coping skills is presented as part of the living well discussion. Recommended for a wide audience, the book features selected references as further reading for each chapter.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.