Alumni in Print

Cuentitos Cortos/Short Stories 

Oliver E. Cobb’56

Third Place Press, 2017 

When Dr. Cobb retired in 2000 as a urologist at age 69, he decided to learn Spanish. He took classes in Spanish at a local Seattle community college, had intermittent tutoring, and lived for brief periods with Spanish-speaking family members. Along the way, he accumulated stories he shared with tutors. The 73 stories in the resulting collection were first written in Spanish then translated. The two versions are printed in the book, with English on one side and Spanish on the other. Some of the stories are about his family and growing up, while others are fictional “products of my imagination, until now sidelined by the intellectual and physical demands of a medical life.”

Attachment Disability, Volume 1: The Hidden Cause of Adolescent Dysfunction and Lifelong Underperformance (Including a Plea for Psychiatric Diagnostic Reform)

John Curran’61 

Bidwell Learning Institute, 2017 

In his new book, Dr. Curran demonstrates that emotional disability is always trauma-related. He draws on professional literature and dozens of case studies to define three types of attachment disability: avoidant, entangled, and acting-out. Dr. Curran describes his experience as a medical student and psychiatry resident at Columbia and suggests a psychiatric management style that can benefit not only doctors but also social workers, parents, teachers, and probation officers. 

Estrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve Women’s Well-Being and Lengthen Their Lives - Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer

Avrum Bluming’65

Little, Brown Spark, 2018

Sixteen years afterhormone replacement therapy was officially deemed a carcinogen by the Women’s Health Initiative, Dr. Bluming and social psychologist Carol Travis track its strange history, which shifted from a miracle to abandonment. The book presents the case for the resurrection of hormone replacement therapy, while also providing a fuller picture of the science that supports it in an effort to provide an empowering path to wellness for women.

Cardiovascular Medicine: Cardiac Arrhythmias, Pacing and Sudden Death

James A. Reiffel’69

Springer, 2018

This new book co-edited by Dr. Reiffel provides up-to-date and comprehensive guidance on the evaluation, diagnosis, and medical and surgical treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, covering every aspect, from cardiac signs and symptoms through imaging and the genetic basis for disease to surgery, interventions, treatment, and preventive cardiology. Presented with consistent chapter organization, clear design, and engaging text that includes user-friendly features such as tables, lists, and treatment boxes, the book aims to aid trainees, practicing cardiologists, and any physician who manages cardiac patients.

Sapira’s Art & Science of Bedside Diagnosis, 5th Edition

Jane M. Orient’74

Wolters Kluwer, 2018

First published in 1990, the book serves as a useful guide for learning and reinforcing effective bedside diagnosis techniques by discussing the patient interview and the physical examination in an engaging, storytelling style. The book aims to help doctors gain the most reliable information from patients and lead to accurate differential diagnoses and effective diagnostic strategies, detailing effective approaches to various types of patients including those who are vague, forgetful, or confused. The fifth edition contains new material on endocrinology, neurologic diagnoses and brain injury, intracranial hypertension, and more. 

The Performance of Medicine: Techniques from the Stage to Optimize the Patient Experience and Restore the Joy of Practicing Medicine

Bob Baker’77

Best Job Productions, 2018

Drawing on his performance skills as a professional magician and believing that patient experience affects patient outcomes, Dr. Baker offers in his new book practical strategies and techniques that physicians and other practitioners can implement easily and immediately to give patients the best possible experience with no additional expenditure of time. Through his book, Dr. Baker brings forward his passion to help doctors rediscover the joy of practicing medicine while optimizing the patient experience, advocating that the magic of medicine begins with the doctor-patient connection. 

Communication Rx: Transforming Healthcare Through Relationship-Centered Communication

Calvin Chou’92 PhD/’94 MD

McGraw-Hill Education, 2018

Advocating that the key to better health care outcomes is communication, Dr. Chou’s new book details the proven and effective methodology by the Academy of Communication in Healthcare, which places communication skills between patients and practitioners, as well as among health care team members, at the center of care. The book provides specific guidance to enhance fundamental skills that apply to every conversation in health care, including challenging conversations with patients, conversations among members of health care teams, and organizational conversations to enhance patient experiences of care, ultimately leading to more accurate diagnoses and improved patient outcomes. 

You Can Stop Humming Now: A Doctor’s Stories of Life, Death, and In Between

Daniela Lamas’08

Little, Brown and Company, 2018

What is life like for patients whose lives are extended by days, months, or years as a result of modern medical treatments and technologies? In her new book, Dr. Lamas explores the complex answers to this question through intimate accounts of patients and their families in a riveting and compassionate look at the choices of realities that many individuals may one day face. “Lamas captures the rhythm and mayhem of modern medicine. Warmth and humanity radiate from every page. The patients in this book have something important to say, and so does the author. We should all be listening,” said a review in USA Today. 

The Cynic in Extremis

Jacob M. Appel’09

Abel Muse Press, 2018

In this book of poetry, Dr. Appel has published new poems along with poems that originally appeared in several poetry and literary journals. As described in the book’s foreword written by Brigit Young, “the inevitability of mortality and the capriciousness of its unfolding linger beneath clever, wry, and ultimately mournful lines” in Dr. Appel’s poems. The 58 poems in the collection include “Summer Camp Socials,” “Murder-Suicide,” “First Crush,” “Flying with Clarity,” “Shrinking with Doubt,” “Blackberry Winter,” and the title poem, “The Cynic in Extremis.” With life’s end so unpredictable and defined by fickle-hearted fate, says Ms. Young, “to waste any moment amounts to a sin.”