Technological Medicine

Stanley Joel Reiser, Clinical Professor of Health Care Sciences and of Health Policy at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, is known nationally and internationally for his scholarship and teaching in ethics, history, technology assessment, and health policy. Before coming to The George Washington University, he held teaching positions at Harvard University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He has written more than 120 books and essays. His articles have appeared in such publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, Hastings Center Report, Scientific American, and the New York Times.

'Wrap a physician, historian of science, philosopher/health policy expert, and accomplished writer and parable-maker (storyteller) all in one author at the same time, and you have Stanley Reiser. This important book uses the spotlight of history to illuminate the conundrums facing today's healthcare industry.' Roger Bulger, Past President of the Association of Academic Health Centers and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Multicultural and Minority Medicine

• 1. Revealing the body's whispers: how the stethoscope transformed medicine; 2. Enigmatic pictures: how patients and doctors encountered the X-ray; 3. Life-saving but unaffordable: the improbable journey of the artificial kidney; 4. Promising rescue, preventing release: the double edge of the artificial respirator; 5. The quest to unify health care through the patient record; 6. Putting technologies on trial: from bloodletting to antibiotics to the Oregon initiative; 7. Amid the technological triumphs of disease prevention - where is health?; 8. The technological transformation of birth; 9. Governing the empire of machines.