Synopses & Reviews
The recipient of extraordinary critical acclaim, this magisterial book provides a landmark account of American medical education in the twentieth century, concluding with a call for the reformation of a system currently handicapped by managed care and by narrow, self-centered professional interests.
Kenneth M. Ludmerer describes the evolution of American medical education from 1910, when a muck-raking report on medical diploma mills spurred the reform and expansion of medical schools, to the current era of managed care, when commercial interests once more have come to the fore, compromising the training of the nation's future doctors. Ludmerer portrays the experience of learning medicine from the perspective of students, house officers, faculty, administrators, and patients, and he traces the immense impact on academic medical centers of outside factors such as World War II, the National Institutes of Health, private medical insurance, and Medicare and Medicaid. Most notably, the book explores the very real threats to medical education in the current environment of managed care, viewing these developments not as a catastrophe but as a challenge to make many long overdue changes in medical education and medical practice.
Panoramic in scope, meticulously researched, brilliantly argued, and engagingly written, Time to Heal is both a stunning work of scholarship and a courageous critique of modern medical education. The definitive book on the subject, it provides an indispensable framework for making informed choices about the future of medical education and health care in America.
Review
"We must not let the future [of medicine] happen, we must make it happen. Ludmerer's extraordinary book provides the foundation--and inspiration--for doing this."--Jerome Kassirer, New England Journal of Medicine
"Its writing is sufficiently riveting and its message important enough to capture any reader.... Before you or your loved one checks into an American teaching hospital for critical care, read this book."--Newsday
"Persuasively written and meticulously researched, providing an exceptional foundation for understanding the problems American health care and medical education face in the next century."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"No consideration of the future of health care in the United States can afford to overlook the historical facts laid out by Ludmerer."--The New Republic
"This important critique of U.S. medical education from WWI to the present makes painfully clear that the training of the nation's doctors could be vital to your health."--Publishers Weekly
"A superb book, perhaps the most significant work of American medical history to have been published in the last quarter-century."--Choice
"A magisterial book, bound to attract more than the scholarly attention...this book will make Ludmerer the most eminent historian of American medicine of his time and a notable figure in the medical profession into the bargain."--Donald Fleming, History Department, Harvard University
"This brilliant historical account...is more than a work of breathtaking scholarship. It is also a work of great social and moral stature...The message of the book is not that medical education and the health care system are beyond redemption. Quite the contrary, it is a challenge for their redemption."--Renee C. Fox, Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
"Ludmerer's book will replace the Flexner report as THE book on American medical education."--Gerald T. Perkoff, Curators Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine
Review
"The changes [in academic medicine] during the second half of the 20th century have been nothing short of amazing. In
Time to Heal and its predecessor, Ludmerer chronicles these changes brilliantly. We can confidently expect medical education to continue to evolve, and I hope we can look forward to Ludmerer's next volume for his comments on these future developments." --
Robert G. Petersdorf, Science"Ludmerer gives us a memorably thoughtful, complete, and deeply scholarly narrative, which is at the same time so lucid and attractively written that it is difficult to put down once begun. This perfectly glorious achievement is destined to be hailed as one of the most important works on medical history and education ever published. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Flexner's."--Sherwin B. Nuland, author of How We Die
"Kenneth Ludmerer has created a masterpiece of great national importance."--Leighton E. Cluff, Past President, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
"An exceptionally clear, meticulous dissection of the interactions between medical education, medical schools, academic hospitals, and the health care system. Unless his compelling admonitions about the travails of medical education as the century ends receive the attention of leaders, we endanger the quality of future physicians... Establishes Ludmerer as one of the great medical historians."--Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D., Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine
"Whle some of this thoroughly researched and well-documented work may be of interest only to academics, most of it concerns us all... With a wealth of factual details and insightful questions, this book is destined to have an impact on the future of medical education. Highly recommended."--Library Journal
About the Author
Kenneth M. Ludmerer, M.D., is an eminent internist, historian of medicine, and medical educator. He is Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and Professor of History on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Washington University. He is the author of
Learning to Heal: The Development of American Medical Education and
Genetics and America Society: A Historical Appraisal. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and two daughters.