From the author of How We Die, the extraordinary story of the development of modern medicine, told through the lives of the physician-scientists who paved the way. How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have us believe that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhuman talents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. But as renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland shows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, the theory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women who have shaped the world of medicine have been not only very human, but also very much the products of their own times and places. Presenting compelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers, Doctors gives us a fascinating history of modern medicine. Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, to Andreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offered invaluable new insight into the human body, to Helen Taussig, founder of pediatric cardiology and co-inventor of the original "blue baby" operation, here is a volume filled with the spirit of ideas and the thrill of discovery.

Profiles of three pioneers in the health field: Florence Nightingale, the first nurse to make nursing a branch of the medical profession; Jonas Salk, the physician who created a vaccine against polio; and Michael DeBakey, the physician who was the first to repair a weak heart.

Elizabeth Blackwell, though born in England, was reared in the United States and was the first woman to receive a medical degree here, obtaining it from the Geneva Medical College, Geneva, New York, in 1849. A pioneer in opening the medical profession to women, she founded hospitals and medical schools for women in both the United States and England. She was a lecturer and writer as well as an able physician and organizer. -- H.W. Orr.

This book brings together in one volume fifteen discoveries that have had a major impact upon medical science and the practice of medicine but where the scientists involved have not been awarded a Nobel Prize. Its aim is to publicize the achievements of these lesser-known heroes of our time and thereby inform and entertain the reader, whether medical student, professor or scientifically-minded layman. Contents:Archibald E Garrod: The Founding Father of Biochemical Genetics (David J Galton)Nikolai Anitschkow: The Birth of the Lipid Hypothesis of Atherosclerosis and Coronary Heart Disease (Daniel Steinberg)Willem-Karel Dicke: The Role of Gluten in Coeliac Disease (Chris J J Mulder and Karel A Dicke)Richard Doll: The Link Between Smoking and Lung Cancer (Tony Seed)Albert Sabin: The Development of an Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (Derek R Smith and Peter A Leggat)René Favaloro: Pioneer of Coronary Artery Surgery (Stephen Westaby)Christiaan Barnard and Norman Shumway: The Heart Transplant Pioneers (Stephen Westaby and David Marais)William Kouwenhoven and Paul Zoll: The Introduction of External Cardiac Massage, Defibrillators and Pacemakers (Max Lab)Inge Edler and Carl Hellmuth Hertz: The Development of Ultrasound for Clinical Use (Bhavna Batohi and Paul S Sidhu)Cyril Clarke, Ronald Finn, John Gorman, Vincent Freda and William Pollack: The Prevention of Rh Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn (David J Weatherall)Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen: Recombinant DNA (Anne Soutar)Harvey Alter and Michael Houghton: The Discovery of Hepatitis C and the Introduction of Screening to Prevent Its Transmission in Transfused Blood (Leonard B Seeff and Marc G Ghany)Willem Kolff and Belding Scribner: The Development of Renal Haemodialysis (John Turney)James Till and Ernest Mcculloch: The Discovery of Stem Cells (Joe Sornberger)Akira Endo: The Discovery of Statins (Gilbert Thompson and Hiroshi Mabuchi) Readership: Medical students, professionals and general public. Key Features:This book is the sequel to Nobel Prizes that Changed Medicine. Many of the authors have personal knowledge of the scientists they write about and all are distinguished authorities in their own field. No other book has brought together the non-Nobel Prize-winning discoveries having the greatest influence upon the practice of Medicine, dating from the first description of inborn errors of metabolism by Garrod in 1908 to the discovery of statins, for which Endo received the Lasker Award in 2008Keywords:Inborn Errors;Metabolism;Lipid Hypothesis;Atherosclerosis;Gluten;Coeliac Disease;Smoking;Lung Cancer;Polio Vaccine;Coronary Angiography;Coronary Bypass Grafting;Cardiac Transplantation;Cardiac Massage;Defibrillator;Pace Maker;Ultrasound;Rh Disease;Gene Cloning;Hepatitis C;Haemodialysis;Stem-Cells;Statins

The best-selling author of the National Book Award-winning How We Die chronicles the history of medicine through profiles of important physicians and research scientists and reviews key medical theories and pioneering advances, with portraits of Galen, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Joseph Lister, and other medical pioneers .

Clara Barton, Alexander Fleming, and Charles Drew left us a legacy of lifesaving gifts! Despite many obstacles, each pioneer strove for a similar goal: making the world a better place. Barton established the American Red Cross, Fleming discovered penicillin, and Drew launched the world's first blood bank. Their stories continue to inspire us today.

Modern medicine in England as we know it today is chiefly the product of the scientific developments of the nineteenth century. These advances included improved sanitation, the acceptance of the germ theory of disease as a result of the emergence of microbiology, and the advent of painless and routine surgical procedures. How then did medicine evolve in Lancaster during the nineteenth century? The focus here is the history of medicine in Lancaster and a community of practice amongst a few medical professionals who shaped Lancaster’s medical landscape. The reader will be introduced to these remarkable medical men and their names will gradually become familiar. Many of these individuals were second and even third generation surgeons and physicians. Background to these pioneers, as well as their successes and failures, is sketched within the context of Lancaster’s socio-economic environment and growth as an industrial town. This volume also marks the main medical events in Lancaster, including the establishment of a Dispensary, which evolved into the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, the Public Health movement and the rise of the Asylums.