Read more
Longtime physician and public health advocate Michael Stein reveals the true differences between public health and medicine--and how we can bridge the divide to solve our most pressing health crises.
List of contents
- Introduction
- With Health, as in the rest of life, we think in terms of Me not Us
- PART 1
- Chapter 1
- We are not sure what public health is
- Chapter 2
- If public health work is preventive, it's invisible, and becomes visible only during crises
- Chapter 3
- We are not sure who public health is for
- Chapter 4
- There is little private money to be made in public health
- Chapter 5
- Public health frames its successes incorrectly
- Chapter 6
- Public health can only infrequently perform randomized trials and therefore seems less rigorous
- Chatper 7
- Public health is thought of as government work, primarily for the sake of the poor
- Chapter 8
- Public health is missing health care's personal stories
- PART 2: HEALTH INDIVISIBLE
About the author
Michael D. Stein, MD, a primary care physician and researcher, has been writing about medicine and public health for decades. He is Professor and Chair of Health Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University School of Public Health. Stein graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Stein has published more than 400 scientific journal articles related to behavioral medicine and risk-taking, and is the best-selling author of ten books, including The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year, Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about The Public's Health, and Broke: Patients Talk about Money with Their Doctor.
Summary
Longtime physician and public health advocate Michael Stein reveals the true differences between public health and medicine--and how we can bridge the divide to solve our most pressing health crises.
Additional text
Michael Stein has written a brilliant and important book. His view of health takes a wider lens that includes poverty, social support, and environment to look at factors that drive the need for health care. At a time when health disparities have become more evident, health costs more burdensome, and health care more technical, this book points us towards a different approach based on community, on 'us.' Me vs. Us should be required reading for anyone trying to understand how a nation that spends so much on health care fails to deliver on health.
