The Best American Medical Writing 2009

by Pauline W. Chen (Editor)

The Best American Medical Writing 2009 highlights the year’s most poignant work from the genre’s fi nest authors— complete with an introduction by best-selling author and renowned transplant surgeon Pauline W. Chen. The Best American Medical Writing 2009 celebrates incisive writing on the subject of medicine and its practice. This inaugural volume features writings by the likes of preeminent writers such as Jerome Groopman and Atul Gawande, and is culled from diverse sources such as The New Yorker, The New England Journal of Medicine, Salon, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, Discover, and many more. Contributors include the likes of Oliver Sacks writing on manic depression from The New York Times Review of Books, Amartya Sen on the innate, human right to health care from The Lancet, and Harriet Washington exploring the topic of race in professional medicine in an article for The New York Times. Other contributors may include:

• David Quammen

• Perri Klass

• Jason Zengerle

• Michael Sokolove

• Alex Kuczynski

• Jessica Bennett

• Rahul K. Parikh

• Barron H. Lerner

• Andrew Pollack

• Jennifer Traig

• Richard A. Friedman

Genres: Essays

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Andres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I like anthologies for the wide variety of material they can hold between their covers, and I really like reading about science and medicine. I already read the Nature and Science collections from Houghton Mifflin's Best American Series (which this series is not related to, being published by Kaplan), so a new anthology concentrating on medical writing was a must read for me.

To get the bad out of the way, the editing wasn't too bad but some articles suffered more than others, with mistakes ranging from missing words and lone quotation marks to an introduction (in the article) that previews 2 stories with only the first one being republished here. As with any anthology not every article will be a winner and some pieces here did fall flat for me, leaving me with an Oh instead of an Ooh.

There are 23 articles in this book and it is interesting to note 8 of them came from publications with some form of 'New York' in the title. Here's a rundown of my favorites:

My Daughter's $29,000 Appendectomy by Tom McGrath
An interesting look at just how complicated and strange the pricing game is for health insurance and hospitals.

The Uneven Playing Field by Michael Sokolove
Find out just how much more girls are getting injured in sports than boys (though personally I have little sympathy for anyone who willingly and repeatedly puts their health 2nd to playing---these are potentially life changing and very long term medical injuries that are swept aside for the chance to keep playing).

Fixing Mr. Fix-It by Diane Suchetka
A harrowing chronicle of man who is catastrophically injured.

DNA Pollution May Be Spawning Killer Microbes by Jessica Snyder Sachs
One of two articles that explains how the overuse of antibiotics creates drug-resistant microbial enemies.

Going Under by Jason Zengerle
Explores some reasons why anesthesiologists have higher addiction rates than other medical professionals.

Superbugs by Jerome Groopman
The second article dealing with antibiotics and how too much of a good thing really isn't.

We Fought Cancer... And Cancer Won by Sharon Begley
A sobering look at just how deadly cancer still is.

America's AIDS Apartheid by Kai Wright
A look at how devastating AIDS has been to a specific group in the U.S. and what needs to be done in order to prevent a catastrophe.

Another AIDS Casualty by David France
Another look at just how tough it can be to work in the health care industry.

Virtual Iraq by Sue Halpern
How the use of virtual reality has helped some soldiers treat their PTSD.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like science and medicine you are likely to love this book, edited by Pauline Chen who is a transplant surgeon. These are articles written people in the field as well as patients and caregivers, and previously published in a huge variety of magazines, some medical but most out there in the general public. The topics range all over the place and are fascinating to read. I had no idea, for example, that of all the medical specialties, anesthesiologists are the most prone to abusing the drugs they are around. With 23 chapters and a great introduction by Dr. Chen everyone should be able to find something of interest. FYI, this book is a first in an intended series so look for a new 2010 collection.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

2009, this appears to be a notion that never took off. Certainly, there would be enough within this framework published every year, but obviously there was no appetite for a collection. Like any anthology, some pieces were better than others. But, compared to other collections, there was a uniformity of writing voice here that made it less interesting together than any part of it would have been alone.