Bistro Bookers

Book title: How Medicine Works and When It Doesn’t: Learning Who to Trust to Get and Stay Healthy
Author: F. Perry Wilson, MD
Discussed by: Alice O’Donnell (Retired Hospital Pharmacist and Assistant Professor at UB) 

Book summary from the publisher:

We live in an age of medical miracles. Never in the history of humankind has so much talent and energy been harnessed to cure disease. So why does it feel like it’s getting harder to live our healthiest lives? Why does it seem like “experts” can’t agree on anything, and why do our interactions with medical professionals feel less personal, less honest, and less impactful than ever?

Through stories from his own practice and historical case studies, Dr. F. Perry Wilson, a physician and researcher from the Yale School of Medicine, explains how and why the doctor-patient relationship has eroded in recent years and illuminates how profit-driven companies—from big Pharma to healthcare corporations—have corrupted what should have been medicine’s golden age. By clarifying the realities of the medical field today, Dr. Wilson gives readers the tools they need to make informed decisions, from evaluating the validity of medical information online to helping caregivers advocate for their loved ones, in the doctor’s office and with the insurance company.

Dr. Wilson wants readers to understand medicine and medical science the way he does: as an imperfect and often frustrating field, but still the best option for getting well. To restore trust between patients, doctors, medicine, and science, we need to be honest, we need to know how to spot misinformation, and we need to avoid letting skepticism ferment into cynicism. For it is only by redefining what “good medicine” is—science that is well-researched, rational, safe, effective, and delivered with compassion, empathy, and trust—that the doctor-patient relationship can be truly healed.

Event details

Date and time: Tuesday, September 15 @ 4:00 pm

Venue: Amherst Center for Senior Services (370 John James Audubon Parkway, Amherst, NY 14228)

Suggested donation of $2 per person is greatly appreciated. Your donation helps Bistro Bookers to continue to hold these reviews and donate back to our community literacy programs. Your donation also allows us to purchase the featured book(s) if necessary and give the reviewer a gift for their time.

You MUST reserve your seat by 3:00 pm on Friday, September 11 for this event by calling 716-636-3051 and providing your name and phone number. If you call to reserve for more than one person, you must provide each person’s name and phone number.

Coming up

October 13: Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs: A Visual Chronicle of Our Time by Hal Buell, reviewed by Theresa Waiter

November 17: “The Floating City of Venice” (presentation on multiple titles), reviewed by Robert Poczik

December 15: Murder, She Wrote: Murder Most Trivial by Jessica Fletcher & Barbara Early, reviewed by co-author Barbara Early

See you at the next review!

Previous titles (PDF)