The Physician [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION One physician superbly qualified to describe his own profession to the average reader is Russel V. Lee, a salty man and a memorable raconteur. In this book Dr. Lee takes the reader on a delightful tour through medical history, from Hippocrates, Galen, Claude Bernard, and the development of modern medical education, into the complexities of specialized medical practice and social medicine. Dr. Lee's father was a missionary who migrated to Utah in about 1880 —his purpose to convert the Mormons to Calvinism. Failing in this—Dr. Lee states—he tried to outnumber the Mormons by producing eight children in seven years. Russel and his twin brother, Paul (who later became a distinguished admiral in the U.S. Navy), were the last of three pairs of twins and two singles. Dr. Lee's early life is the story of a driving, dedicated youngster who let no obstacles stop him on his road to an education. He worked at everything from raising bees to serving as a "bound boy" in Salt Lake City before he received his medical degree in 1920 from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Entering practice there, he formed a partnership that later developed into the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, one of the largest and most successful group practices in the country. Experience in his own clinic persuaded Dr. Lee that group practice, described in detail in this book, was the only way that the rapidly advancing new knowledge of medical technology could be carried to the bedside of the patient at a cost the patient could afford. This led him into the broad, uncharted field of social medicine. He studied prepayment plans with the acuity of an actuary. He became convinced that better medical care could be delivered at a lower cost through group practice and prepaid insurance, and he preached this doctrine across the country. Dr. Lee has also been a leader in efforts to improve the treatment of older people—socially as well as medically. His concern with efforts to modernize teaching methods in tradition-bound medical schools, particularly through the use of modern visual aids, is reflected in several sections of this book. Perhaps most important of all, Dr. Lee is a "patient's doctor." The care of the patient and the sensitive relationship between patient and physician have always been his passion. His diagnostic ability and his intuitive sense of his patients' physical and emotional needs have made him a physician extraordinary. As doctor, raconteur, evangelist, educator, economist and world traveler, Dr. Lee offers the readers of this book an exciting and educational view of the modern physician. —Howard A. Rusk, M.D. Director, Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine New York University Medical Center