Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome Kindle Edition

Dr. Levenstein trained in the US and then moved to Rome with her husband with the intent of working for a year. This stretched into a lifetime of medical practice in Rome. The book is a no-holds-barred look at Italian medicine, showing some positives but also enough negatives that one prays they don't fall sick on a visit! The book also covers differences between Italian and American patients, especially their expectations and behavior.More than just a medical memoir, it is also the story of Dr. Levenstein's life. At the end of the book is the sad story of the death of her elderly mother a few nights after arriving in Rome. From her weakness after arrival and then death while apparently fighting for breath, I wonder if she might have had an embolism that went to her lungs?

You will not be able to put down this gem of a book if medicine, health care, or cultural diversity interest you. Dottoressa is Dr. Susan Levenstein’s account of her immigration to and life in, Italy, starting in 1978. Anyone who has been an expatriate will recognize the crazy-making tussle with the certifying gatekeepers, the catch-22’s and contradictions, and the ultimate—if partial---victory, especially those with experience in Italy or similar Mediterranean cultures. No less fascinating is the way her own practice history unfolds, revealing both appealing and seamy features of Italian culture and medical care. Equally gripping—especially to anyone with an interest in bioethics—is her assessment of the ways even a morally superior health care delivery system can fail to provide high quality care. Thus, a medical education curriculum that used to be so heavily weighted toward theory that graduates might scarcely have seen a live patient meant a crapshoot for individuals seeking care. (As a teenager living in Italy with my parents in the 60’s, I was, naturally, oblivious to this, but am now especially appreciative that nothing serious went wrong with any of us!) I leave it to you readers to discover the rest of the story, as well to delight in Levenstein’s clear-eyed and pithy assessment of the Italian and U.S. health care worlds in her epilogue.

I've been living in Italy for almost two years and am still trying to figure out how Italy's healthcare "system" really works. This book provides a lot of background that explains some of the confusing aspects. Give me another a decade or two and I think that I shall understand it!Easy to read writing style. Professional, funny, and personal - a tough combination to get right.

Hilarious and horrifying at the same time, the wonderfully written bookgoes deeply into the practice of medicine both in Italy, where the author has lived for over forty years, and in the United States (by contrast and comparison). The style of wring is engaging, witty, clear, and honest.Highly recommended!

Susan Levenstein has written a very personal account of her experience as an American physician practicing in Rome.Her book is insightful, informative and witty. After a few pages it was like I was in a coffee shop sitting across the tablefrom an engaging raconteur. The contrast between medical practice in Rome and medical practice in New York is as much cultural as it is administrative, but the administrative part of having her board certified status in the U.S. accepted in Italy makes getting your driver's license renewed seem like fun. Patient, caring, often bemused Dr. Levenstein reminds us that diet, exercise and life style are indeed significant factors in achieving and maintaining good health and the Italians do benefit greatly from that triad. This is a book for all readers but physicians especially will enjoy it and perhaps envy the Italian docs who aren't shackled to their laptops to check all of the boxes on their patients' electronic health records. Her reflections on life in Italy and Rome are a bonus.

"Medicine, Italian Style" is a film that won't get made, but "Dottoressa" would be the book to option if you wanted to make it. This is a memoir of an expat doctor with the knowledge of a scientist, the passion of an Italian, the pragmatics of an American, and the writerly skills to distinguish the truths from the stereotypes that distort them. She has a vivid present-tense style and tells pithy tales of all too human colleagues and patients. It is hard to be both critical and affectionate but Dr. Levenstein combines a gimlet eye with a compassionate view. It's a personal book and reads as if you're in a cafe with a good friend hearing about the ups and downs of her life negotiating the ins and outs of treating the sick in an adopted, occasionally inscrutable, and fabulously frustrating culture. It's the sort of book that should be assigned in medical school courses designed to teach doctors how to understand what it means to practice the so-called 'art' of medicine patient by patient, day by day. Plus, it's fast, funny and deliciously wry.

I lived in Rome for 5 years (1976-1981) when I went to medical school at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. In some respects I got the best of both worlds: the intense academic preparation of the European system coupled with the clinical experience back home in the US. I laud Dr Levenstein for the depiction of her journey through Italian bureaucracy in obtaining a medical license. Then Having the guts to stick it out and establish a practice deserves my genuflection.I was amused and smiled with amused recollection as she described the Italian banks and post office. To bring this into perspective, think “department of motor vehicles” in just about any state with a large population.Dottoressa was an enjoyable and fun read. It started out describing the Italian medical system then morphed into a well written treatise of Italian society in general albeit from a physicians perspective.Thank you for writing this book!

I just loved this book! Susan writes so well with great insight and sympathy for her many patients. This is a must read for everyone even vaguely connected to the medical profession and everyone who loves Italy!

I can heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in life in Italy. While it's possible to see aspects of the book as too negative, in my opinion the reality is deeper than a first knee jerk reaction. Actually, the book is a tough love love letter to Italy and the resilience and contradictory sides of the Italian character and culture that on one hand sometimes makes it crazy and difficult to live here, but mostly makes it a joy. If you move to Italy, learn the language and stay, there has to be a good reason. This memoir, which reads like good fiction, lays it on, warts and all. Compared to the USA, in the long run Italy comes across as a more humane and healthier place to live. And reading this book will help you "get it," as well as make you laugh out loud.

I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it especially to anyone involved in medicine, including both practitioners and administrators. I bought it thinking that it would be a story of how a US doctor decided to move to Italy and set up in a medical practice in Rome - with descriptions of her personal life adjusting to Roman life. I'm a sucker for expat stories - and thought I'd get lots of "fish out of water" descriptions of life in Italy. Instead, I got both less and more than I expected. While the focus is on the practice of medicine in Italy, especially compared to the US, which now makes me very nervous about ever getting sick in Italy, lots of the book is about doctoring, generally, and would apply to medical professionals around the world. The author describes her challenges in getting properly licensed to practice in Italy, despite stellar credentials and experience in the United States. She never mentions any issues with the language, so I'm assuming she was already fully bilingual when she arrived. She was married to an Italian, but there is very little about her private life, or the circumstances that led to her divorce and remarriage. However, there is lots of commentary on Italian medical education and training, running a general practice, how to build a clientele, and the interesting personal dynamics of dealing with patients. I was under the impression that Italy had a wonderful medical system, but the author points to many startling problems, some of which may have been resolved since she started working there decades ago, but many of which must still exist, given the horrific impact of the COVID pandemic in Italy. I thought it was amazing that Italian doctors can have specialist credentials based on exams, as opposed to personal experience with real patients. The stories of incompetence and indifference at Italian hospitals were truly scary - you'd be in trouble without a medical advocate to ensure you got good treatment. Those parts of the book should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in medicine in Italy. However, lots of the descriptions of medical life would apply to doctors and medical students everywhere - and there are many amusing anecdotes of odd patients, unusual maladies, and how doctors need to be mind readers to really understand what the patient's issues are. The reader will long for the day when doctors had the time to really find out what was wrong, and were not limited by time and focussed on finding a fast pharmaceutical remedy. The author is fair in her assessment of public medicine in Italy, vs. private medicine (albeit with Obamacare for the time being) in the US. There are pros and cons to both, and obviously, the Italian pros must outweigh the cons since she has maintained a medical practice in Rome for decades. The writing is clear, humorous and passionate. A good read.

Dottoressa" descrive con grande umorismo l'esperienza dell'espatrio, nella buona e nella cattiva sorte, di un medico New-Yorkese a Roma. Dolce vita versus burocrazia, esotismo versus divario culturale, umanità versus nevrosi, il libro racconta con grande tenerezza l'amore particolare, scelto nonostante le incomprensioni, che lega uno straniero alla sua nuova patria di elezione. Francese da vent'anni residente a Roma, mi sono riconosciuta a ogni pagina. Una lettura gradevolissima che fornisce spunti di riflessione utilissimi sul sistema sanitario e la relazione paziente/medico.

What a wonderful book! From an American doctor who was trained in the US comes this fascinating account of her forty years in Italy, dealing with the bureaucracy, the different style of caring and healing, her personal challenges as a woman and a professional in a difficult context where she maintains her integrity and professionalism. She describes her efforts to begin working in private practice while dealing with her being a foreigner imbued with different values. Her love of Italy comes through as does her vulnerability as a woman searching and finding meaning in her relationships with her family, friends and patients. A sensitive, wise and knowledgeable book. Even after having lived myself many years in Rome, Dr Levenstein's book had many surprises and insights for me. Happily recommended.