Doing Harm

Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick by Maya Dusenbery    400 pages

This book,is filled with extensive research that reveals how gender bias infects every level of healthcare and medicine today (yes, even today) and how that leads to inadequate, inappropriate and sometimes dangerous ignoring of symptoms and lack of treatment.  The author pulls together research, both sociological and scientific, along with interviews and personal stories and provides what appears to be (and I'm saying that because I have never read something this extensive and well-researched) the first book that takes a comprehensive and yet still accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women. And not in the past, way back when ---- how medicine harms women now, in 2018. The author does delve into history so that you understand the roots of some of the entrenched biases that exist now, and she also lays out those side effects and how there are steps that can be taken to address these biases.

I found this book absolutely fascinating, although at the same time, extremely frustrating. While I knew some of what is covered in the book, like how studies on certain diseases were only done on White men, I really found my knowledge was quite shallow.  It's completely disconcerting and frankly, alarming. 

However, at the same time, I found myself feeling "It's not just me. !!"  In my own medical history, I have experienced being dismissed by doctors, or told something that isn't true. In just one example, a nurse practitioner refused to give me a referral to another doctor (because I was part of a HMO) when I asked for help with what were increasingly painful joints in my feet. Her solution of "take some Advil" never worked . . . because when I finally got up the courage to see a podiatrist years later, I found out I have large spurs and a broken piece of bone in my foot.  My own experiences are absolutely tiny when compared to what some of the women Dusenbery experienced went through. And I didn't realize the huge advantage I have because I am White; apparently, research documents the fact that Black women experience worse reactions from medical personnel (the least of which is to be told that these women are just "drug seeking").

So, a good book, and I believe one that many people should read. Just be prepared that your blood pressure might go up a little bit!

Acres of Skin

Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison by Allen M Hornblum, 244 pages

Years after he first visited Holmesburg Prison outside Philadelphia, Dr Albert Kligman recalled his initial impression - "All I saw before me were acres of skin.  It was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time."  For over two decades, Dr Kligman and his colleagues exploited that field, using the skin of prisoner volunteers for research on everything from dioxin to poison ivy to cosmetics to diet drinks.

In Acres of Skin, Allen Hornblum chronicles the history of human testing at "the Burg" and throughout the American prison system more generally, starting during the Second World War and stretching into the seventies.  Beginning with military programs, the industry boomed with the proliferation of consumer products and increased government regulation which mandated extensive human trials.  Prisons were ideal for experimentation - a stable population kept in a controlled environment for an extended period of time.  The prisoners were generally eager to claim the high pay (by prison standards) and other perks of participation.  The prison itself was also compensated, and prison officials soon discovered that, despite their initial concerns, the experiments actually made prisoners more manageable, as participation provided another carrot to be offered for good behavior.  With everyone seemingly benefiting, concerns over things like informed consent - extremely problematic in a prison atmosphere in the best of circumstances - were ignored.

Hornblum is a less than ideal writer and researcher.  The book is poorly organized and is severely lacking when it comes to quantitative information on the programs.  Some of the latter problem may be due to incomplete, unreliable, or destroyed documentation, but the former makes it difficult to tell.  Hornblum is, however, clearly deeply passionate about the subject, and the book really shines in the oral histories of the experiments as related by the subjects themselves.

Intuition

Intuition, by Allegra Goodman, 385 pages

Cancer research can be a cut-throat field, with everyone looking to make the next big breakthrough.  But what is a breakthrough if it can't be reproduced?  This was an interesting, if not totally enjoyable, work of fiction about characters working in a research laboratory.  Cliff's tests start showing amazing results, but Robin, his ex-girlfriend and fellow scientist, has a feeling that all is not what it seems.  This book has alot of great character studies, it raises many good discussion questions regarding intuition in the field of science and out, and was praised by many in the science field for its ability to make the not-so-glamorous process of science research so accessible to lay readers.  It would make for good book discussion if your group can get past the first 100 pages.
Sidenote: this is terrible cover art for this book- it does not reflect in any way the contents of the book.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 381 pages

In 1951, a poor black woman, Henrietta Lacks, died of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Without her knowledge, or the knowledge of her family, the doctor that was treating her took a sample from her tumor to create a cell culture, the first one to thrive ceaselessly. Since 1951, that cell culture has continued to grow, and is now one of the most widely used cell cultures used in medical and scientific research. The HeLa cells have been used for a wide variety of medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine and several cancer treatments. Skloot's book explores the immortal life of these cells, as well as the life of Henrietta's family as they attempt to discover whatever they can about Henrietta and her cells.

This book is incredibly well written, presenting scientific facts clearly and mixing them with historical accounts, interviews and conversations with the Lacks family, and some first-person accounts of Skloot's research process to create a compelling narrative. I particularly appreciated the portions of the book dedicated to Henrietta's family, especially her daughter Debra, who seemed to be the most interested in learning about her mother and making sure that the world knows just who Henrietta Lacks is. This was a great book, and will appeal to those who have an interest in medical research, history, and biographies.

An additional note: I listened to the downloadable audiobook of this, and the narrator was superb. Cassandra Campbell also did the narration for Orange is the New Black, which I've also listened to, and in both, characters of various races and economic situations were presented well; they were easily distinguishable, but nobody became a stereotype, which would have been an easy trap to fall into. I may have to seek out more of Campbell's narrations.