The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science (TED Books) Hardcover – October 13, 2015

A fantastic essay on the art of medical practice. I gave it as a gift to my friends in medical fields and they all loved it. It's also really short so even busy clinicians had time to read it. I could imagine this being a fantastic gift for anyone striving to practice medicine, go into nursing, or do meaningful biomedical science.

Interesting perspective on the status of medical research. It provides a realistic view of medicine as a science which enables one to have better expectations on treatment. Medicine is not an exact science yet many of us view it as such. However, progress is being made toward that direction. I look forward to a follow on a few years from now.

The author shares the physicians view of medicine. I do not argue with the simplicity ofThe book, because many people ignore simple things though they may be significant.What I feel is going on in North American medicine is the following:Doctors can get sued, they need expensive insurance. Residency is practically institutionalizedHazing. Middle class people cannot become doctors because it costs too much in timeAnd money.Despite all of this, some people still go through with this process. There is privilege andRespect in a licence to practice medicine.So what is wrong with the medical profession today?Just as in the Trump presidency, the masses or the silent majority have voted with theirWallet. Acupuncture and TCM is not unheard of in Canada nowadays, neither isAyurvedic medicine, thanks to the simplified works of a certain Dr Deepak Chopra.I predict that if mainstream doctors do not accept these trends, they will earn even lessIn the future./END DIATRIBE

This book is a great read, especially for those work in more black and white fields like IT. A lot of careful work goes into medicine, but it is not engineering. muhkerjee writes with a wonderful flowing style that makes the material a joy to read.

I bought this book immediately after the interview with Eric Topol. I had loved the Emperor of all Maladies and bought copies, hardcover, for friends and family. For a non oncologist physician and a lover of history, retired, the history of the war on cancer and the complex new genetics applications were wonderful. I had hoped this book would be the same. Isn't . I read House Of God, briefly mentioned in book and interview, when it was published. Had hoped the Laws would discuss those laws as well as ones newly formulated. I too read Lewis Thomas and Osler trying to understand medicine as a science and an art.I join with the critic who noted cost is outlandish for a tiny book filled with blank pages. TED talks are regularly pleasing, but in their brevity leave the listener eager to read more or think harder. Perhaps the book can do same, but looking at the conclusions makes me wonder if a medical student can learn.Bytes theorem is a magnificent application of an old theory, one where the mathematical statistics have been replaced by its function on common sense rules. Would that we could apply decision making to the complex formula or easily recognize when tests are not valuable, such as PSA or mammograms. Statistics in medicine are often bad statistics or unusable ones. Outcome studies require sufficient numbers to have power and so often there are more variables which may impact outcomes that are not able to be evaluated. Informed decision making is difficult.So it is with insight. The cognitive scientists and psychologists as well as philosophers have rediscovered David Hume where his idea of reason being led by passion helps us understand why groups or tribes or clans defy pure reason and act poorly. In making medical diagnosis intuition is often experience, experience not formulated or conscious. One of my friends a long time ER doc could tell sick from non sick. Years of experience warned him.Years ago I ran a clinic for the penurious and staffed orthopedic residents. A case referred to clinic by a family practitioner for severe back pain was seen by a host of residents and short white coats who by intuition realized the man was a drug user and he simply wanted medication. Writhing in pain, I said no he is infected. Judgment of the profile and social status of patients sometimes over rules attentiveness to quality of pain. In orthopedics spine surgery it is not unusual to have patients where infection is the diagnosis but because of other issues is missed.None of us can write a flow chart or "scientific" method of figuring out whether one has disease or not. Perhaps Watson will. Students need to know there are outliers, and his rounds for outliers is significant to teach those learning that exam is more than a lab test or a scan. His recollection of the old skilled surgeon training residents in the o.r. brings back memories. So, the physician who had a list of seemingly unrelated questions which could help him sort out complex problems efficiently. Marvelous.I cannot wait for his book on genetics. Any author who takes the time to go see where the monk, Mendel, worked has done his homework. And he writes with style and in prose easily understood.This tiny book should stimulate readers to read more, such as the Stanford article on Bayes' theorem.

The book provides an interesting history of medicine and the major players who helped it mature during the 1950s.

Beautifully crafted in the Mukherjee way with important insights about the all-too-human limits of medical science. The short text doesn’t justify the ambitious title.

The author takes us on a marvelous quest for answers regarding medical laws. His discoveries are revealed in a format that is both understandable and somewhat mysterious. He takes us to a place in medicine where the recognition of the minute differences in our individual chemistry form barriers in treatment and diagnosis. Mukherjee gives us some understanding in the important use of biases and intuition by physicians. This is a great sequel to "The Emperor Of All Maladies". Recommended reading for those curious about diagnosis and treatment from a doctor's perspective.