cultural divide
Dec. 8, 2020The DO Book Club, December 2020: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman tells the tragic story of a cultural conflict between a Hmong immigrant family and a team of American physicians.
Topic: The DO book club
Vaccines & immunology
Nov. 18, 2020The DO Book Club, November 2020: On Immunity: An Inoculation
In 2014, Eula Biss wrote about how cultural perceptions of immunity inform the general public’s outlook on personal responsibility. In 2020, her words resonate strongly.
Emergency medicine
Oct. 28, 2020The DO Book Club, October 2020: The Beauty in Breaking
Emergency physician Michele Harper, MD, writes candidly about systemic racism and gender bias in the health care system through the lens of her own experience.
Mental health
Sept. 22, 2020The DO Book Club, September 2020: Fallible: A Memoir of a Young Physician’s Struggle with Mental Illness
Kyle Bradford Jones, MD, opens up about his struggles with depression and anxiety while advocating for the destigmatization of physicians seeking help when facing their own mental health struggles.
biomedical ethics
Aug. 25, 2020The DO Book Club, August 2020: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks’ cells sparked a medical science revolution and a multi-million dollar industry, but her family was kept out of the loop.
Treating trauma
July 29, 2020The DO Book Club, July 2020: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Traumatic stress expert Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD, discusses his lifelong research on psychosocial trauma. His insights have surprising parallels to osteopathic medicine.
medical history
June 23, 2020The DO Book Club, June 2020: The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic
Dr. John Snow’s discovery that bacteria-contaminated water caused cholera saved countless 19th-century Londoners and changed public health forever.
Medical education
May 27, 2020The DO Book Club, May 2020: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident
Adam Kay, a former resident physician who is now a comedy writer, published a diary describing all the highs and lows of his six years working in NHS labor wards.