Webster Bull and Martha Bull
Something in the Ether: A Bicentennial History of Massachusetts General Hospital, 1811-2011
Memoirs Unlimited
Founded in 1811, Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. In 2007, Mass General commissioned local author Webster Bull to write a history book in conjunction with the hospital’s bicentennial. Something in the Ether captures the spirit of the nation’s third oldest general hospital as conveyed through the work of some of the most captivating, colorful and inspiring characters in health care, past and present.
“I think readers will find Something in the Ether to be a lively and engaging story,” said Peter Slavin, the hospital’s president. “It describes the building and changing of the MGH, but it also offers a glimpse of medical progress, the changing community, world events and the society’s values through the lens of an academic medical center.” The book’s events begin with the vision of two Boston physicians in the early 1800s and continue with stories, interviews, and over 200 historic and current photographs, spanning two centuries of medicine to modern-day efforts at Mass General, including major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer and human genetics, while maintaining its tradition of caring for vulnerable patients.
Jean Fain
The Self-Compassion Diet: A Step-by-Step Program to Lose Weight with Loving Kindness
Sounds True, Inc.
This weight-loss guidebook is based on Jean Fain’s 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist specializing in eating issues. Fain reframes the dieter’s experience as a journey instead of a jaunt, using the scientifically proven methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy, and meditation as weight-loss tools to replace extensive lists of what to or not to eat.
This no-diet diet book uses anecdotes from Fain’s clients, quizzes and specific hands-on practices to help dieters attain the sense of self-compassion and awareness that are the keys to Fain’s success in leading people to mental and physical fitness.
Nancy Krieger
Epidemiology and the People’s Health: Theory and Context
Oxford University Press
It is about life and death. It is about biology and society. It is about ecology and the economy. It is about how aspects of people’s lives—involving work, love, play and conflict—become literally incorporated into our bodies and manifest in our health status, both individually and collectively. In Epidemiology and the People’s Health, Nancy Krieger traces the history and theoretical underpinnings of epidemiology, the science of public health.
Unlike other major sciences, the theoretical foundations of epidemiology are rarely articulated, although the science provides essential knowledge critical for improving people’s health and minimizing inequitable burdens of disease, disability and death. Krieger brings together a vast array of schools of thought, from the natural, social and biomedical sciences, to give a conceptually rich yet accessible overview of epidemiologic theory: what it is, why it matters, how it has changed over time and its implications for improving population health and promoting health equity. Epidemiology and the People’s Health is essential reading for anyone involved in the study of human health and well-being.
Michaela Mendelsohn, Judith Lewis Herman, Melissa Coco, Diya Kallivayalil, Emily Schatzow, and Jocelyn Levitan
The Trauma Recovery Group: A Guide for Practitioners
Guilford Press
Clinicians from the renowned Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and the Department of Psychiatry at HMS have drawn on their collective experiences to publish The Trauma Recovery Group. This novel treatment guide for adult survivors of interpersonal violence and abuse is rich with expert, practical guidance for clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and counselors. The Trauma Recovery Group provides an evidence-based group designed for people who have achieved basic safety and stability and who are ready to work on the more enduring ways that trauma has harmed their self-perception and relationships.
The Trauma Recovery Group includes reproducible handouts, worksheets and flyers for clinicians. Vivid case examples and transcripts illustrate the process of screening, selecting, and orienting group members while guiding individualized goals and optimizing the healing power of group interactions.
Augustus White III, with David Chanoff
Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care
Harvard University Press
Augustus White draws on his own rich life experiences, from his childhood in the segregated South to becoming the first African American department chief at Harvard Medical School, to examine the taboo topic of how deeply embedded societal bias can significantly impact the quality of care patients receive.
White combines his analysis of medical care at the most elemental level—as a human interaction between doctor and patient—with research data and narrative accounts from colleagues to paint a picture of how cognitive health care decisions are often negatively affected by unconscious stereotypes, even among the most compassionate providers.
He shares his vision for culturally competent care as a first step in addressing this complex problem, one that creates significant health disparities and undermines the national well-being.
