#MedRead (part 3): Non-fiction books: Health policy, healthcare reform, and healthcare redesign

Recently, I made a request on Twitter for suggestions for books that medical students should read.  These suggestions could be books of any sort: fiction, non-fiction, clinically-focused, etc.  I was hoping to get suggestions for books that made a meaningful impact on people.  I'll be posting the lists in a series of blog posts.

In each case, I've linked the book title to its Powells.com listing...mainly because I didn't want to link to larger sites such as Amazon.  In practice, I would strongly advise looking for these books at the library (to test them out--use this site to find the books at a library near you) or at your local independent bookstore (such as Chop Suey Books, in Richmond).  Remember that if you're local bookseller doesn't carry these titles, they can probably order them for you--and they'll keep your money local.

Alternately, if you wish to support the authors directly, feel free to see if you can purchase the book you are interested in from the author's own website.

This is the third installment, focused on health policy, healthcare reform, and healthcare redesign.  The first installment is here, and the second is here.

Pathologies of Power – Paul Farmer

Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law, and What It Means For Us All – Washington Post Staff

Understanding Health Policy -- Bodenheimer and Grumbach

The Social Transformation of American Medicine – Paul Starr

The Last Well Person: How To Stay Well Despite The Health-Care System – Nortin Hadler

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do about It – Marcia Angell

Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients – Ray Moynihan

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer – Shannon Brownlee

Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine – John Abramson

Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution will Create Better Healthcare – Eric Topol

Time To Die : How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life – Sharon Kaufman

Let the Record Show: Medical Malpractice, the Lawsuit Nobody Wins – J. Kelley Avery

AMA Code of Medical Ethics

Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Healthcare Costs so Much – Maggie Mahar

Health Care Will Not Reform Itself: A User's Guide to Refocusing and Reforming American Health Care – George C. Halvorson

Through the Patients’ Eyes: Understanding and Promoting Patient-Centered Care – Margaret Gerteis

Caring for the Country: Family Doctors in Small Rural Towns – Howard Rabinowitz

Beliefs and Families: A Model for Healing Illness – Lorraine M. Wright, Wendy Watson, and Janice M. Bell

On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health – Jerome P. Kassirer

The Patient Paradox: Why Sexed Up Medicine Is Bad for Your Health – Margaret Mccartney (A more-detailed description can be found here.)

If you have read these books (or if you recommended them), please use the comments below to provide us with some thoughts on why the book mattered to you.