The Vanishing Physician-Scientist?

The Vanishing Physician-Scientist?
Author: Andrew I. Schafer
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2011-06-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0801462428

Throughout history, physicians have played a vital role in medical discovery. These physician-scientists devote the majority of their professional effort to seeking new knowledge about health and disease through research and represent the entire continuum of biomedical investigation. They bring a unique perspective to their work and often base their scientific questions on the experience of caring for patients. Physician-scientists also effectively communicate between researchers in the "pure sciences" and practicing health care providers. Yet there has been growing concern in recent decades that, due to complex changes, physician-scientists are vanishing from the scene. In this book, leading physician-scientists and academic physicians examine the problem from a variety of perspectives: historical, demographic, scientific, cultural, sociological, and economic. They make valuable recommendations that—if heeded—should preserve and revitalize the community of physician-scientists as the profession continues to evolve and boundaries between doctors and researchers shift.

The Physician Scientist's Career Guide

The Physician Scientist's Career Guide
Author: Mark J. Eisenberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2010-10-14
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1603279083

The Physician Scientist’s Career Guide provides a complete guide to having a successful career as a Physician Scientist. Filled with first-hand experiences and practical advice, it guides readers through each step of this career path, from choosing a degree and training program, to navigating the tenure track, and through the intricacies of applying for and obtaining funding. The volume is unique in that it provides an overview of this entire career path, allowing readers to envision and prepare for their futures. The Physician Scientist’s Career Guide fulfills a unique and crucial need and will be an invaluable guide for medical students, fellows and newly appointed faculty members interested in a career in research.

Rainforest Medicine

Rainforest Medicine
Author: Jonathon Miller Weisberger
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2013-09-17
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1583946233

Chronicling the practices, legends, and wisdom of the vanishing traditions of the upper Amazon, this book reveals the area's indigenous peoples' approach to living in harmony with the natural world. Rainforest Medicine features in-depth essays on plant-based medicine and indigenous science from four distinct Amazonian societies: deep forest and urban, lowland rainforest and mountain. The book is illustrated with unique botanical and cultural drawings by Secoya elder and traditional healer Agustin Payaguaje and horticulturalist Thomas Y. Wang as well as by the author himself. Payaguaje shares his sincere imaginal view into the spiritual life of the Secoya; plates of petroglyphs from the sacred valley of Cotundo relate to an ancient language, and other illustrations show traditional Secoya ayahuasca symbols and indigenous origin myths. Two color sections showcase photos of the plants and people of the region, and include plates of previously unpublished full-color paintings by Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938-2009), an acclaimed Peruvian artist renowned for his intricate, colorful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew, ayahuasca ("vine of the soul" in Quechua languages). Today the once-dense mysterious rainforest realms are under assault as the indiscriminate colonial frontier of resource extraction moves across the region; as the forest disappears, the traditional human legacy of sustainable utilization of this rich ecosystem is also being buried under modern realities. With over 20 years experience of ground-level environmental and cultural conservation, author Jonathon Miller Weisberger's commitment to preserving the fascinating, unfathomably precious relics of the indigenous legacy shines through. Chief among these treasures is the "shimmering" "golden" plant-medicine science of ayahuasca or yajé, a rainforest vine that was popularized in the 1950s by Western travelers such as William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg. It has been sampled, reviled, and celebrated by outsiders ever since. Currently sought after by many in the industrialized West for its powerful psychotropic and life-transforming effects, this sacred brew is often imbibed by visitors to the upper Amazon and curious seekers in faraway venues, sometimes with little to no working knowledge of its principles and precepts. Perceiving that there is an evident need for in-depth information on ayahuasca if it is to be used beyond its traditional context for healing and spiritual illumination in the future, Miller Weisberger focuses on the fundamental knowledge and practices that guide the use of ayahuasca in indigenous cultures. Weaving first-person narrative with anthropological and ethnobotanical information, Rainforest Medicine aims to preserve both the record and ongoing reality of ayahuasca's unique tradition and, of course, the priceless forest that gave birth to these sacred vines. Featuring words from Amazonian shamans--the living torchbearers of these sophisticated spiritual practices--the book stands as testimony to this sacred plant medicine's power in shaping and healing individuals, communities, and nature alike.

T.E.B.: Doctoring in an Age of Scientific Medicine

T.E.B.: Doctoring in an Age of Scientific Medicine
Author: Alan L. Graber, MD
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-08-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1483488047

In T.E.B., Dr. Alan Graber examines the influence and legacy of Dr. Thomas Evans Brittingham II, a legendary physician and educator at Vanderbilt University. Brittingham embodied what it meant to be a doctor. He taught his trainees-by his example-how to care for sick people. This book demonstrates Brittingham as an exemplar of a medical era when a doctor's history and physical exam were the principal means of diagnosis. Brittingham's practice of doctoring still represents the essence of good patient care. "This is much more than a biography. T.E.B. was a master of bedside clinical medicine and left his legend to a generation of young doctors. If anyone was ever 'called' to the profession of medicine, it was T.E.B." -Clifton K. Meador, MD, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

Bridges to Independence

Bridges to Independence
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2005-08-26
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030909626X

A rising median age at which PhD's receive their first research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is among the factors forcing academic biomedical researchers to spend longer periods of time before they can set their own research directions and establish there independence. The fear that promising prospective scientists will choose other career paths has raised concerns about the future of biomedical research in the United States. At the request of NIH, the National Academies conducted a study on ways to address these issues. The report recommends that NIH make fostering independence of biomedical researchers an agencywide goal, and that it take steps to provide postdocs and early-career investigators with more financial support for their own research, improve postdoc mentoring and establish programs for new investigators and staff scientists among other mechanisms.

The Vanishing Black African Woman: Volume Two

The Vanishing Black African Woman: Volume Two
Author: Olumide, Yetunde Mercy
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2016-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9956763683

Skin-lightening is currently one of the most common forms of potentially harmful body modification practices in the world and African women are among some of the most widely represented users of skin-lightening products. The overall objective of this book is to provide up-to-date evidence-based recommendations for reducing the global burden of cosmetic skin bleaching and preventing injuries related to skin bleaching in sub-Saharan Africa and Africans in diaspora. The book aims to: offer an appraisal of all relevant literature on cosmetic bleaching practices to-date, focusing on any key developments; identify and address important medical, public health issues as well as historical, genetic, psychosocial, cultural, behavioural, socioeconomic, political, institutional and environmental determinants; provide guideline recommendations that would help attenuate the burden and possibly eliminate the injuries related to skin bleaching; discuss potential developments and future directions.

Practical Nuclear Medicine

Practical Nuclear Medicine
Author: Peter F. Sharp
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2005-09-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781852338756

This book is an essential guide for all practitioners. The emphasis throughout is on the practice of nuclear medicine. Primarily aimed at the radiologist, physician, physicist or technologist starting in nuclear medicine, it will also appeal to more experienced practitioners who are keen to stay up-to-date. The practical approach with tables as "recipes" for acquisition protocols means it is essential for any departmental shelf. 3rd edition expanded - now covering areas of development in nuclear medicine, such as PET and other methods of tumour imaging, data processing. All illustrations are up-to-date to reflect current standards of image quality.

Kabbalah, Magic, and Science

Kabbalah, Magic, and Science
Author: David B. Ruderman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1988
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674496606

In describing the career of Abraham Yagel, a Jewish physician, kabbalist, and naturalist who lived in northern Italy from 1553 to about 1623, David Ruderman observes the remarkable interplay between early modern scientific thought and religious and occult traditions from a wholly new perspective: that of Jewish intellectual life. Whether he was writing about astronomical discoveries, demons, marvelous creatures and prodigies of nature, the uses of magic, or reincarnation, Yagel made a consistent effort to integrate empirical study of nature with kabbalistic and rabbinic learning. Yagel's several interests were united in his belief in the interconnectedness of all thing--a belief, shared by many Renaissance thinkers, that turns natural phenomena into "signatures" of the divine unity of all things. Ruderman argues that Yagel and his coreligionists were predisposed to this prevalent view because of occult strains in traditional Jewish thought He also suggests that underlying Yagel's passion for integrating and correlating all knowledge was a powerful psychological need to gain cultural respect and acceptance for himself and for his entire community, especially in a period of increased anti-Semitic agitation in Italy. Yagel proposed a bold new agenda for Jewish culture that underscored the religious value of the study of nature, reformulated kabbalist traditions in the language of scientific discourse so as to promote them as the highest form of human knowledge, and advocated the legitimate role of the magical arts as the ultimate expression of human creativity in Judaism. This portrait of Yagel and his intellectual world will well serve all students of late Renaissance and early modern Europe.

The Emperor of All Maladies

The Emperor of All Maladies
Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 624
Release: 2011-08-09
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1439170916

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
Author: Nicholas Carr
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2011-06-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393079368

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.