First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Do No Harm is an interdisciplinary study examining how various members of academic physicians organisations have constructed certain images of patients on paper over time. The study pays special attention to the classical concept of pathos, or its modern equivalent, empathy. It analyses the usage of language in describing the patients in five editions of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), spaced 30 years apart - March 25, 1828; March 25, 1858; March 29 1888; March 28, 1918; and March 25, 1948. This book provides a unique study on this topic.