A landmark book that shows us exactly how we have let health and medicine become a crisis in our society and what we can all do to resolve it Healthcare is no longer just a public issue; for millions of Americans it is now a crisis on their own doorstep. Costs of medical care today are a leading cause personal bankruptcy. Although policy makers have weighed in on all sides, in this book, bestselling author Andrew Weil, M.D. identifies the root of the problem. He shows us exactly how we have become embroiled in the present situation and provides a solution that will not only make healthcare affordable, but will also put each one of us on the road to optimum health. Dr. Weil states that we have a right to good healthcare that is effective, accessible, and affordable. Many Americans would be surprised to know that our national health is far from the best in the world, even though we spend more money on it than any other country. The World Health Organization recently rated America thirty-seventh in health outcomes, on par with Serbia. Tackling head-on The Three Major Myths of American Medicine, Dr. Weil shows how medical schools fail to give future doctors the education they need to care for patients, how insurance companies have destroyed our opportunity to get excellent care, and how pharmaceutical companies have come to rule our lives. The solution involves nothing less than the creation of a completely new culture of health and medicine in this country, one that we can each start building today.

The exclusive, first-hand, behind-the-scenes story of how Pfizer raced to create the first Covid-19 vaccine, told by Pfizer's CEO Dr. Albert Bourla A riveting, fast-paced, inside look at one of the most incredible private sector achievements in history, Moonshot recounts the intensive nine months in 2020 when the scientists at Pfizer, under the visionary leadership of Dr. Albert Bourla, made "the impossible possible"--creating, testing, and manufacturing a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine that previously would have taken years to develop. Dr. Bourla chronicles how the brilliant, dedicated minds at Pfizer, under the enormous strains of the global pandemic, overcame a series of crises that were compounded by social and political unrest, and reveals the doubts, decisions, obstacles, and failures they encountered. As Dr. Bourla makes clear, Pfizer's success wasn't due to luck; it was because of preparation driven by four simple values--Courage, Excellence, Equity, and Joy. Moonshot is a story of leadership under the most unprecedented circumstances--how Dr. Bourla, a Greek immigrant, a child of Holocaust survivors, and a veterinarian, became the head of one of the world's largest corporations and initiated a dramatic transformation of the organization just before a global health crisis would serve to test the organization, its scientists and its leader, like never before. Moonshot describes best practices that can be used to address the multiple, unprecedented challenges our world faces, reveals Pfizer's implementation of scientific breakthroughs at a record-breaking pace, and offers leadership lessons that can help anyone successfully manage their own seemingly unsolvable problems. As Dr. Bourla explains, "I am sharing the story of our moonshot--the challenges we faced, the lessons we learned, and the core values that allowed us to make it happen--in hopes that it might inspire and inform your own moonshot, whatever that may be."

The competition for limited health care resources is intensifying. We urgently need an acceptable method for deciding how they should be allocated. But the goods that health care produces are of very different kinds. Health care can extend the lives of children and of older people. It can make it possible for a person to walk, when without health care that person would be permanently bedridden; and it can reduce the pain and distress of people who are terminally ill. How can we possibly decide which of these - and many more - diverse achievements of health care are more deserving than others? We need a common unit by which we might be able to measure these very different goods. The Quality-Adjusted Life Year, or QALY, is the most developed proposal for such a unit of measure. In this book a distinguished team of ethicists and economists defend the core of the QALY proposal: that health care resources should be used so as to produce more years of life, of the highest possible quality. This leads to a discussion of such fundamental questions as whether all lives are of equal value, whether health care should be allocated on the basis of need and whether the QALY approach incorporates an adequate account of fairness or justice. The result is the most thorough account yet of the ethical issues raised by the use of the QALY as a basis for allocating health care resources.

"A collection of diverse viewpoints from over 45 thought leaders in the biotechnology industry and their efforts going forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biotechnology in the Time of COVID-19 is the opening chapter of a story of how the biotechnology industry rose to battle the COVID-19 virus-told by the leaders of that industry in their own words. The industry has built over more than forty years, an ecosystem of scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, investors, venture capitalists, analysts, media, and bankers, all committed to advancing global health. In two months, leaders and companies from this ecosystem pivoted from the work they were carrying on pre-COVID-19 to face the virus. Forty-six seven contributors offer historical, personal, and investor perspectives, views from inside the biotech companies, broad lessons, leadership, and a look to the future. COVID-19 was a crisis anticipated by many, but one for which we were inadequately prepared. That has led to an unnecessary catastrophe. Now is the time to shine a light on those who bring hope that we will push back the virus with science and medicine. This book is a collection of the voices from the front of that fight. All share the commitment to fight and the conviction that science and medicine will prevail. The editor royalties and a portion of publisher revenues will be donated to two nonprofits focused on rare disease research: Global Genes (globalgenes.org) and The Institute for Life Changing Medicines (lifechangingmedicines.org)"--

This book is an intellectual and personal history of Richard Lazarus, a psychologist whose pioneering research and theories in stress, coping, and emotion continue to have a worldwide influence. The author interweaves the account of his personal life and career with the developments of psychology as an academic discipline during the past five decades. His reminiscences offer glimpses of academic life, university politics, and also his growing contacts with the European and Japanese colleagues who invited him to lecture. The book concludes with his thoughts about aging, retirement, and issues of life and death.

Book by Machlup, Professor Fritz