The Citizen Patient

Reforming Health Care for the Sake of the Patient, Not the System

By Nortin M. Hadler, M.D.

264 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 7 figs., 7 tables, index

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-0704-7
    Published: April 2013
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-5466-9
    Published: August 2019
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-0705-4
    Published: April 2013
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4337-1
    Published: April 2013

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Conflicts of interest, misrepresentation of clinical trials, hospital price-fixing, and massive expenditures for procedures of dubious efficacy--these and other critical flaws leave little doubt that the current U.S. health-care system is in need of an overhaul. In this essential guide, preeminent physician Nortin Hadler urges American health-care consumers to take time to understand the existing system and to visualize what the outcome of successful reform might look like. Central to this vision is a shared understanding of the primacy of the relationship between doctor and patient. Hadler shows us that a new approach is necessary if we hope to improve the health of the populace. Rational health care, he argues, is far less expensive than the irrationality of the status quo.

Taking a critical view of how medical treatment, health-care finance, and attitudes about health, medicine, and disease play out in broad social and political settings, Hadler applies his wealth of experience and insight to these pressing issues, answering important questions for Citizen Patients and policy makers alike.

About the Author

Nortin M. Hadler, M.D., M.A.C.P., M.A.C.R., F.A.C.O.E.M., is professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attending rheumatologist at UNC Hospitals. His most recent book is Rethinking Aging: Growing Old and Living Well in an Overtreated Society.
For more information about Nortin M. Hadler, M.D., visit the Author Page.

Multimedia & Links

Read: Hadler's guest blog post at the Scientific American, "The Scientific Basis for Choosing to Be a Patient: Forearmed Is Forewarned." (5/29/2013)