Library News and Views

By Dr. Frank Miller

A community member has donated a four-disc set of DVDs from The Teaching Company. This addition to our collection of educational courses is “Medical School for Everyone: Grand Rounds Cases.”

These are 24 presentations of common (and some fairly uncommon) medical illnesses and conditions. They are presented to the viewer just as cases in medical school and university hospitals, starting with chief complaint, history of present illness, past history, family history, social history, and physical and radiology/laboratory findings. The whole presentation of the patient’s problem is then followed through the diagnostic process to a probable cause for the illness and various aspects of treatment.

The intended effect is to lend insight into the teaching and learning of the whole diagnostic and therapeutic process.

his organized series of lectures is intended to increase understanding of how doctors diagnose and treat disease and how to improve your own health by being an active and informed patient. Every lecture is, in a way, a medical mystery—and by the end of each lecture, you will not only understand more about the diagnostic process, but also gain insight into how doctors work and think. In the course guidebook accompanying the cases there is a very helpful glossary of medical terms and nice, useful bibliography. There is a lot to learn here.

Another book on the new arrivals shelf is “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” written by Atul Gawande. Gawande is a Harvard Medical School Professor of Surgery and a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has written several best-selling books about medical topics. This one is about various aspects of end-of-life care. The book is very well written and full of real-life anecdotes, full of compassion. A very good and worthwhile read.

(Frank Miller is chair of the borad of directors for the Havre-Hill County Library.)