Author: Leo Srole
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412830690
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Personal History and Health by Leo Srole and Ernest Joel Millman is a posthumous synthesis of Leo Srole's seminal longitudinal study. Srole and Millman analyze relationships among gender, generation, socioeconomic status, mental health, and history of somatic disorders using the statistical methods of multiple correlation and regression analysis. Through Millman's work, Srole's pioneering exploration of social age and adult mental health - in particular how they differed for the women and men of the Midtown Longitudinal Study - has been completed.
Personal History & Health
Author: Leo Srole
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412830690
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Personal History and Health by Leo Srole and Ernest Joel Millman is a posthumous synthesis of Leo Srole's seminal longitudinal study. Srole and Millman analyze relationships among gender, generation, socioeconomic status, mental health, and history of somatic disorders using the statistical methods of multiple correlation and regression analysis. Through Millman's work, Srole's pioneering exploration of social age and adult mental health - in particular how they differed for the women and men of the Midtown Longitudinal Study - has been completed.
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412830690
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Personal History and Health by Leo Srole and Ernest Joel Millman is a posthumous synthesis of Leo Srole's seminal longitudinal study. Srole and Millman analyze relationships among gender, generation, socioeconomic status, mental health, and history of somatic disorders using the statistical methods of multiple correlation and regression analysis. Through Millman's work, Srole's pioneering exploration of social age and adult mental health - in particular how they differed for the women and men of the Midtown Longitudinal Study - has been completed.
The Future of Public Health
Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309581907
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309581907
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.
The Patient History: Evidence-Based Approach
Author: Mark Henderson
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071624945
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 754
Book Description
The definitive evidence-based introduction to patient history-taking NOW IN FULL COLOR For medical students and other health professions students, an accurate differential diagnosis starts with The Patient History. The ideal companion to major textbooks on the physical examination, this trusted guide is widely acclaimed for its skill-building, and evidence based approach to the medical history. Now in full color, The Patient History defines best practices for the patient interview, explaining how to effectively elicit information from the patient in order to generate an accurate differential diagnosis. The second edition features all-new chapters, case scenarios, and a wealth of diagnostic algorithms. Introductory chapters articulate the fundamental principles of medical interviewing. The book employs a rigorous evidenced-based approach, reviewing and highlighting relevant citations from the literature throughout each chapter. Features NEW! Case scenarios introduce each chapter and place history-taking principles in clinical context NEW! Self-assessment multiple choice Q&A conclude each chapter—an ideal review for students seeking to assess their retention of chapter material NEW! Full-color presentation Essential chapter on red eye, pruritus, and hair loss Symptom-based chapters covering 59 common symptoms and clinical presentations Diagnostic approach section after each chapter featuring color algorithms and several multiple-choice questions Hundreds of practical, high-yield questions to guide the history, ranging from basic queries to those appropriate for more experienced clinicians
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071624945
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 754
Book Description
The definitive evidence-based introduction to patient history-taking NOW IN FULL COLOR For medical students and other health professions students, an accurate differential diagnosis starts with The Patient History. The ideal companion to major textbooks on the physical examination, this trusted guide is widely acclaimed for its skill-building, and evidence based approach to the medical history. Now in full color, The Patient History defines best practices for the patient interview, explaining how to effectively elicit information from the patient in order to generate an accurate differential diagnosis. The second edition features all-new chapters, case scenarios, and a wealth of diagnostic algorithms. Introductory chapters articulate the fundamental principles of medical interviewing. The book employs a rigorous evidenced-based approach, reviewing and highlighting relevant citations from the literature throughout each chapter. Features NEW! Case scenarios introduce each chapter and place history-taking principles in clinical context NEW! Self-assessment multiple choice Q&A conclude each chapter—an ideal review for students seeking to assess their retention of chapter material NEW! Full-color presentation Essential chapter on red eye, pruritus, and hair loss Symptom-based chapters covering 59 common symptoms and clinical presentations Diagnostic approach section after each chapter featuring color algorithms and several multiple-choice questions Hundreds of practical, high-yield questions to guide the history, ranging from basic queries to those appropriate for more experienced clinicians
A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine
Author: Henry N. Wagner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1846280729
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine is an account of how nuclear medicine developed, and its basic philosophy in the past, present and future. The book outlines the history of the development of nuclear medicine as experienced by the author and describes the hurdles that nuclear medicine has had to face, in view of the perception of risk of radiation. It also explains how nuclear medicine solves medical problems in clinical practice and how it has contributed to a new definition of disease. The book concludes with future projections of the likely developments in this area in the next 50 years. Target market: nuclear medicine professionals as well non-nuclear medicine physicians and the public
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1846280729
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine is an account of how nuclear medicine developed, and its basic philosophy in the past, present and future. The book outlines the history of the development of nuclear medicine as experienced by the author and describes the hurdles that nuclear medicine has had to face, in view of the perception of risk of radiation. It also explains how nuclear medicine solves medical problems in clinical practice and how it has contributed to a new definition of disease. The book concludes with future projections of the likely developments in this area in the next 50 years. Target market: nuclear medicine professionals as well non-nuclear medicine physicians and the public
Handbook of Clinical Diagnostics
Author: Xue-Hong Wan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811376778
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
The book covers basic theories, basic knowledge and basic skills on clinical diagnosis, basic requirements for doctors’ ethical conduct, clinical reasoning and documentation of medical records during the process of making a diagnosis. It consists of six parts, including ‘Symptoms’, ‘History Taking’, ‘Physical Examination’, ‘Supplementary Examination’, ‘Common Clinical Diagnosis Techniques’, and ‘Diagnostic Process and Clinical Reasoning’. A vocabulary index is included for easy reference at the end of the book. This book is compiled by authors of 14 Chinese medical schools and universities, whose years of experience in clinical diagnostics, rich overseas learning and working experiences. This book is included in the first round of English textbooks series for clinical medicine major of China's higher medical colleges; and is among "13th Five-Year" planning textbooks of National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. It is also an ideal textbook for MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) student It is a co-publication book with People's Medical Publishing House (PMPH). The ISBN of PMPH version in China is 978-7-117-23852-6.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811376778
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
The book covers basic theories, basic knowledge and basic skills on clinical diagnosis, basic requirements for doctors’ ethical conduct, clinical reasoning and documentation of medical records during the process of making a diagnosis. It consists of six parts, including ‘Symptoms’, ‘History Taking’, ‘Physical Examination’, ‘Supplementary Examination’, ‘Common Clinical Diagnosis Techniques’, and ‘Diagnostic Process and Clinical Reasoning’. A vocabulary index is included for easy reference at the end of the book. This book is compiled by authors of 14 Chinese medical schools and universities, whose years of experience in clinical diagnostics, rich overseas learning and working experiences. This book is included in the first round of English textbooks series for clinical medicine major of China's higher medical colleges; and is among "13th Five-Year" planning textbooks of National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. It is also an ideal textbook for MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) student It is a co-publication book with People's Medical Publishing House (PMPH). The ISBN of PMPH version in China is 978-7-117-23852-6.
Personal History
Author: Katharine Graham
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1474610269
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
As seen in the new movie The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep, here is the captivating, inside story of the woman who piloted the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media. In this bestselling and widely acclaimed memoir, Katharine Graham, the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, tells her story - one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candour and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant, charismatic husband - a confidant to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - plunge into the mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her grief and insecurity to take on a president and a pressman's union as she entered the profane boys' club of the newspaper business. As timely now as ever, Personal History is an exemplary record of our history and of the woman who played such a shaping role within them, discovering her own strength and sense of self as she confronted - and mastered - the personal and professional crises of her fascinating life.
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1474610269
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
As seen in the new movie The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep, here is the captivating, inside story of the woman who piloted the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media. In this bestselling and widely acclaimed memoir, Katharine Graham, the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, tells her story - one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candour and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant, charismatic husband - a confidant to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - plunge into the mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her grief and insecurity to take on a president and a pressman's union as she entered the profane boys' club of the newspaper business. As timely now as ever, Personal History is an exemplary record of our history and of the woman who played such a shaping role within them, discovering her own strength and sense of self as she confronted - and mastered - the personal and professional crises of her fascinating life.
Personal History and Health
Author: Leo Srole
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351291300
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
Scientists, philosophers, and storytellers often question why human beings appear to remain constant while existing in a state of change at the same tune. Among those who explore and expose dramatic conflicts between human stability and flux, the number of behavioral scientists has remained relatively low - that is, until Leo Srole followed the progress of a large cohort of people in his Midtown Longitudinal Study. This statistical project was designed to analyze mental health and assess human biological, social, and psychological change. New York's Upper East Side was the study's focus, a sociologically insular community, consisting of loosely differentiated neighborhoods, with a population of generalizable significance that transcended individual characteristics. Midtowners, studied hi 1954 then reinterviewed in 1974, were the subjects of analysis. After a twenty-year hiatus, Srole's eagerly awaited findings and outcomes are available.Personal History and Health by Ernest Joel Millman is a posthumous synthesis of Leo Srole's seminal behavioral study. This book presents the principal findings of MLS - with emphasis on adult mental health predictors, not cause-and-effect relationships. Srole used such biophysical correlates as gender and generation, mental health and history of somatic disorders, and the statistical methods of multiple correlation and regression analysis to predict average mental health. Through this work, Srole's pioneering exploration of social age and adult mental health - in particular how they differed for the women and men of the Midtown Longitudinal Study - has been completed. Personal History and Health is the conclusive, long-range view of those changes.These are Srole's final perspectives on mental health. As was characteristic of him, it is not exploratory or confirmatory, nor does it declare conclusions; rather, it raises questions. Millman offers an accessible yet sophisticated presentation of sociomedical sampling and analysis in language which may be understood by statistically unsophisticated readers, placing all of the explanations, details, figures, and tables in comprehensive statistical appendices. This book will appeal to those in the mental health field, sociomedical scientists, and those with interest in the socioeconomic correlates of health status and/or social mobility in urban society.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351291300
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
Scientists, philosophers, and storytellers often question why human beings appear to remain constant while existing in a state of change at the same tune. Among those who explore and expose dramatic conflicts between human stability and flux, the number of behavioral scientists has remained relatively low - that is, until Leo Srole followed the progress of a large cohort of people in his Midtown Longitudinal Study. This statistical project was designed to analyze mental health and assess human biological, social, and psychological change. New York's Upper East Side was the study's focus, a sociologically insular community, consisting of loosely differentiated neighborhoods, with a population of generalizable significance that transcended individual characteristics. Midtowners, studied hi 1954 then reinterviewed in 1974, were the subjects of analysis. After a twenty-year hiatus, Srole's eagerly awaited findings and outcomes are available.Personal History and Health by Ernest Joel Millman is a posthumous synthesis of Leo Srole's seminal behavioral study. This book presents the principal findings of MLS - with emphasis on adult mental health predictors, not cause-and-effect relationships. Srole used such biophysical correlates as gender and generation, mental health and history of somatic disorders, and the statistical methods of multiple correlation and regression analysis to predict average mental health. Through this work, Srole's pioneering exploration of social age and adult mental health - in particular how they differed for the women and men of the Midtown Longitudinal Study - has been completed. Personal History and Health is the conclusive, long-range view of those changes.These are Srole's final perspectives on mental health. As was characteristic of him, it is not exploratory or confirmatory, nor does it declare conclusions; rather, it raises questions. Millman offers an accessible yet sophisticated presentation of sociomedical sampling and analysis in language which may be understood by statistically unsophisticated readers, placing all of the explanations, details, figures, and tables in comprehensive statistical appendices. This book will appeal to those in the mental health field, sociomedical scientists, and those with interest in the socioeconomic correlates of health status and/or social mobility in urban society.
The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309262011
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 159
Book Description
In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309262011
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 159
Book Description
In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.
Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes
Author: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality/AHRQ
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 1587634333
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 1587634333
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307589382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307589382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.