Don Blossom, a certified pediatrician for more than four decades, relives a personal journey from childhood through a long career in medicine. Occasionally, over the course of his career, he came to think of himself as a curandero, a folk healer who serves Native Americans and Hispanic America.

Before he found his calling, however, Blossom had to survive his youthful exuberance including a tour overseas as a US Army Special Forces paratrooper. After several months, he yearned to catch a glimpse of an American girl. He got his chance when he was honorably discharged and met Ellie, a beguiling lass from New Orleans. In love, he faced a future in medical school and other obstacles before realizing his dream of becoming a doctor.

Blossom succeeded, becoming a doctor in private practice in a small New Mexico community, just as the field of medicine experienced some serious changes. He recalls his many adventures in medical diagnosis, the demands of a professional career in pediatrics, and the evolution of his private and family life.

In his manuscript Blossom targets physicians & nurses, healthcare administrators & medical educators, parents & teachers, as well as the evolution of healthcare in America. Explore the daily life and responsibilities of a pediatrician working in a small town and join Blossom as he reminisces about his experiences in Alaska, Russia, New Zealand and beyond in "Curandero: A Physician's Life Journey."

While Francis Bacon continues to be considered the 'father' of modern experimental science, his writings are no longer given close attention by most historians and philosophers of science, let alone by scientists themselves. In this new book Dennis Desroches speaks up loudly for Bacon, showing how we have yet to surpass the fundamental theoretical insights that he offered towards producing scientific knowledge. The book first examines the critics who have led many generations of scholars - in fields as diverse as literary criticism, science studies, feminism, philosophy and history - to think of Bacon as an outmoded landmark in the history of ideas rather than a crucial thinker for our own day. Bacon's own work is seen to contain the best responses to these various forms of attack. Desroches then focuses on Bacon's "Novum Organum, The Advancement of Learning and De Augmentis", in order to discern the theoretical - rather than simply the empirical or utilitarian - nature of his programme for the 'renovation' of the natural sciences. The final part of the book draws startling links between Bacon and one of the twentieth century's most important historians/philosophers of science, Thomas Kuhn, discerning in Kuhn's work a reprise of many of Bacon's fundamental ideas - despite Kuhn's clear attempt to reject Bacon as a significant contributor to the way we think about scientific practice today. Desroches concludes, then, that Bacon was not simply the 'father' of modern science - he is still in the process of 'fathering' it.

White Coat is Dr. Ellen Lerner Rothman's vivid account of her four years at Harvard Medical School. Describing the grueling hours and emotional hurdles she underwent to earn the degree of M.D., Dr. Rothman tells the story of one woman's transformation from a terrified first-year medical studen into a confident, competent doctor.

Touching on the most relevant issues in medicine today--such as HMOs, aIDS, and assisted suicide--Dr. Rothman recounts her despair and exhilaration as a medical student, from the stress of exams to th hard-won rewards that came from treating patients.

The anecdotes in White Coat are funny, heartbreaking, and at times horrifying. Each chapter taes us deeper into Dr. Rothman's medical school experience, illuminating her struggle to walk the line between too much and not enough intimacy with her patients. For readers of Perri Klass and Richard Selzer, Dr. Rothman looks candidly at medicine and presents an unvarnished perspective on a subject that matters to us all. White Coat opens the infamously closed door between patient and doctor in a book that will change the way we look at our medical establishment.

With a thoughtful, candid voice, Rothman writes about a wide range of experiences -- from a dream about holding the hand of a cadaver she had dissected to the acute embarrassment she felt when asking patients about their sexual histories. She shares her horror at treating a patient with a flesh-eating skin infection, the anxiety of being "pimped" by doctors for information (when doctors quiz students on anatomy and medicine), as well as the ultimate reward of making the transformation and of earning a doctor's white coat.

For readers of Perri Klass, Richard Selzer, and the millions of fans of ER, White Coat is a fascinating account of one woman's journey through school and into the high-stakes drama of the medical world.

In White Coat, Ellen Rothman offers a vivid account of her four years at one of the best medical schools in the country, and opens the infamously closed door between patient and doctor. Touching on today's most important medical issues -- such as HMOs, AIDS, and assisted suicide -- the author navigates her way through despair, exhilaration, and a lot of exhaustion in Harvard's classrooms and Boston's hospitals to earn the indisputable title to which we entrust our lives.

With a thoughtful, candid voice, Rothman writes about a wide range of experiences -- from a dream about holding the hand of a cadaver she had dissected to the acute embarrassment she felt when asking patients about their sexual histories. She shares her horror at treating a patient with a flesh-eating skin infection, the anxiety of being "pimped" by doctors for information (when doctors quiz students on anatomy and medicine), as well as the ultimate reward of making the transformation and of earning a doctor's white coat.

For readers of Perri Klass, Richard Selzer, and the millions of fans of ER, White Coat is a fascinating account of one woman's journey through school and into the high-stakes drama of the medical world.

Cancer stories usually start with some kind of struggle or fight. This story starts with a song. "You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here? You may say to yourself, my God, what have I done?" These words rang true for Christine Egan. Many questions and stories circulate about cancer. Are you telling yourself you are a victim of cancer? Are you worried the cancer will come back? Are you stuck in the role of being sick? Egan made a conscious choice to tell a different story. The Healthy Girl's Guide to Breast Cancer is part memoir and part guide revealing the all-too-true story of cancer in this country with a healthy twist. Rest assured-this is not a cancer story; it's a story about health and wellness.

Barbara Maddox was living a fairly normal and happy existence. Newly married, she was reaching the pinnacle of success as a regional sales manager at a large corporation and enjoying a fun social life with family and friends. And then her body started to betray her with what she thought were work-related, stress-induced health problems. After several months of worsening symptoms and a frustrating search for answers, she found herself in the emergency room one Sunday afternoon, completely exhausted and missing half of her blood. Within two hours of testing and prodding, she learned her fate: Cancer had spread throughout her lymph nodes. Mashed Potatoes and Gravy is Barb's brave and poignant accounting of how she managed through months of aggressive chemotherapy, three hospital stays, two serious blood infections, and acute mental depression. Along the way she discovers the importance of love, family, and friends as her spiritual world expands and she asks some deep, penetrating questions about life and our very existence. Written with raw emotion, and sprinkled with a good dose of humor, her story will leave readers inspired as they cheer her on through the unpredictable twists and turns on her journey toward conquering stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Along her 30 year nursing career path, Kathy Mercurio has been privileged to learn some of life's most important lessons. Often, the "teachers" were unsuspecting, unintentional educators in the form of patients, their family members and friends. Join Kathy in learning and sharing some light moments, dark days and hard-learned lessons in the pages of this intimate look at the Art of Nursing and the Life's Lessons that are imparted.

Dr. Stribling was only twenty-six years old in 1836 when he became head of Western State hospital. Then, every institution for the insane in the South, and all but a very few in the remainder of the country, were little more than penitentiaries. Dr. Robert Hansen, superintendent of Western State Hospital, wrote in 1967, "In an age of the common man, Dr. Stribling possessed an uncommon and profound knowledge of human nature, and the importance of human relationships. He believed that the drives, interests, and needs of the insane were the same as those of others, and that satisfaction of them through human relationships, would help restore their reason." Stribling recognized that insanity was a disease that if treated early, was curable. He used medical and moral therapy, separately or in concert, to cure his patients. Moral medicine included early treatment, separating the violent from those who could be cured, eliminating restraints whenever possible, providing patients with nutritious food, occupation, exercise, amusements and religious services. Caretakers were instructed how to increase their patients' self-esteem, especially by being their friend. Stribling's efforts to admit only patients who could be cured resulted in a bitter dispute in the early 1840s between him and Dr. John Minson. Galt was head of Eastern State Hospital, the first institution in the Colonies built for the treatment of the insane. Soon thereafter, Stribling rewrote Virginia's laws concerning the insane to conform to his admission policies. In 1852, Stribling and his directors defended themselves against charges by Captain Randolph that they abused their patients. Randolph's son had been a patient at Western State. During the Civil War Stribling managed to provide for his patients even after Sheridan's troops sacked his hospital. The daily lives of slave servants are described and also the different approaches taken by Stribling and Galt provide for insane free blacks and insane slaves. The similarities and differences between the two young doctors are examined. (Stribling was twenty-six and Galt twenty-two when they assumed their positions.) Letters between Dr. Stribling and Dorothea Dix from 1849 until 1860 describe a deep and intimate friendship. Mrs. Stribling's letter to her eighteen-year-old son while he was a prisoner of war is probably representative of many letters from other mothers in the South and North who were in a similar situation. After the war, Stribing was successful after he petitioned Congress to keep his job. His reconciliation speech at the superintendents' meeting in Boston in 1868 was highly praised by his fellow superintendents and the Boston press. Dr. Stribling died in 1874.

It never would have occurred to me to record the story of my life; I believed it to be of little public interest . However, Professor Jonathan Halevy, director general of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where I have helped to establish a center for humanistic medicine, and other friends believed otherwise. They maintained that the men and women who will learn from and be served by the institutions I have been able to help with gifts in support of humanistic values would like some idea of who I am. In response to their urging I have attempted to present an accurate portrait of a fortunate man.

Juliet Knowles began writing a blog about her daughter's fight with cancer as a way to reach out to others in the same situation, and her work became a personal story of survival. Now she offers her perspective on that struggle in Autumn Ivy Cannon. Juliet's daughter, Autumn, is a wonderful, beautiful, and strong little girl who had a very rough and exhausting fourth year of her life. She was diagnosed with a form of kidney cancer just two months after her fourth birthday.

For Juliet, hearing that her child had cancer seemed unbelievable, unmanageable, and unreal. It felt as if she were witnessing someone else's life from a distance, something she believes was a way of protecting her own emotions from the tragedy. Now, looking back, she recalls her experiences of facing that tremendous challenge and learning of her own capacity for strength and endurance.

Juliet began writing during Autumn's cancer diagnosis and treatment in the beginning of 2011. It was an intense year, full of anxiety and frustration as well as moments of truly understanding both life's brevity and its greatness. Sifting through photos and rereading the passages she wrote during the past year throughout Autumn's recovery has helped her to heal, reach out, and share her story with others.