Health & Medicine as Social Sciences: Home
Page Summaries
Patient Care: This page focuses on the value of Patient-Centered Care and it's core components as well as how implementation into health systems functions. Read about how Medical Schools are teaching future physicians to care for patients.
Interactions in Medicine: This page explores the value of communication and positive relationships between physicians and patients in the healthcare system with a focus on mutual participation and informed consent.
Creating Healthy Communities: This page explores aspects of medicine not focused on the individual, rather the impacts of health on our community. Learn about the Social Determinants of Health, Conflict of Interest, and Healthcare Costs.
Minorities in Medicine: This page explores how minorities experience medicine as both physicians and patients. Learn about underrepresentation in medicine, medical research, and health disparities.
Patients and Providers: This page discusses advocacy on both the side of the physician and the patient in addition to emphasizing patient safety and researching medical information.
References
Below is a list of all the sources used directly in the guide. More literature was read than included below, but reading these articles is a great place to start if you are interested in learning more!
Books
Check out these books and others listed throughout this guide for more reading opportunities.
An American Sickness by ISBN: 9781594206757Publication Date: 2017-04-11The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
Doing Harm by ISBN: 9780062470805Publication Date: 2018-03-06An eye-opening read for patients and health care providers alike, Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn't trust their reports of their symptoms. The research community has neglected conditions that disproportionately affect women and paid little attention to biological differences between the sexes in everything from drug metabolism to the disease factors--even the symptoms of a heart attack. Meanwhile, a long history of viewing women as especially prone to "hysteria" reverberates to the present day, leaving women battling against a stereotype that they're hypochondriacs whose ailments are likely to be "all in their heads." Offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its sometimes catastrophic consequences, Doing Harm is a rallying wake-up call that will change the way we look at health care for women.
The Healing of America by ISBN: 9781594202346Publication Date: 2009-08-20In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the other industrialized democracies have achieved something the United States can't seem to do: provide health care for everybody at a reasonable cost. In his global quest to find a possible prescription, Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracies like our own--including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and Canada--where he finds inspiration in example. Reid shares evidence from doctors, government officials, health care experts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign health care systems give everybody quality care at an affordable cost.
The Price We Pay by ISBN: 9781635574111Publication Date: 2019-09-10Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
This Guide
This guide was created as a part of the Library Summer Scholars Program for the Summer of 2021 by Grace McMahon. Grace is studying Biomedical Sciences at Grand Valley and wanted to create a resource for students interested in medicine to further understand the field and all of the factors that contribute to patient wellness.
- Last Updated: Jan 17, 2023 9:58 AM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/healthandmedicine
