The Troubled Health Dollar: How It Affects the Care We Receive

Author: Steve Fredman, M.D.

259 pages

Most of us (doctors included) have a limited understanding of the ways health care has changed during the last half century, the progress and struggles, the influence of for-profit corporations, and the rising costs.

Why did Obama choose the approach so many are attacking?

Will Alzheimer's and its costs overwhelm us?

How do we die, and why are our final days so pricey?

What is cancer and how are we dealing with it?

What about emergency care, sudden death, heart attacks, and strokes?

Are transfusions safe?

How far have transplants come and where are we heading?

What is Type Two Diabetes and what can be done about the epidemic?

Where do the for-profit hospitals fit in to our current system?

Are the excesses of big pharma appropriate and necessary?

What about the enormous cost of medical education?

What does the future hold for the miracles of the last 60 years?

- New knees and hips

- Surgery performed through tiny slits in the skin

- Video endoscopes exploring the inside of the gut

- Radiologists stretching arteries and biopsying abnormalities deep in the body.