Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Medical

THE COLLEGE GUIDEBOOK: Biological and Biomedical Engineering by Rachel A. Winston, PhD – Education, Guidebook, Inspirational

The College Guidebook: Biological & Biomedical Engineering by Rachel A. Winston, Ph.D., is a unique and useful college admissions guidebook with invaluable information on internships, testing, interviews, and scholarships, along with research and profiles of 56 universities that offer programs in biological and biomedical engineering.

Dr. Winston wrote this book to give her engineering students, and aspiring biomedical engineers like them, the tools to pursue their interests. This work will give curious students insight and inspiration to achieve their goals, such as various methods by which to present their abilities and talents to admissions committees. The author, an educator for nearly forty years, has been a chemist, research scientist, mathematician, college professor, and more, and has the know-how and expertise to guide students through the labyrinth of academia. All the while, Winston peppers the work with inspirational quotations, such as “Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.” —James A. Michener

Young people must ask themselves what they want to do with their life, and a handy reference book like this one is a rare, valuable boon in helping help them find the answers.

The College Guidebook provides a remarkably comprehensive view of its chosen fields: a broad explanation of biomedical engineering and its past, present, and future; the expectations and training for the field (such as high-tech healthcare, nanotechnology, informatics, prosthetics, and mimetics); how to prepare academically; the summer programs and internships for high school and undergraduate students; university options and which programs are best suited for those interested; college admissions, tests, essays, resumé, and recommendations; how to pay for the education; the employment outlook; a list of the accredited biological, biomedical, and chemical engineering programs; the top programs in adjacent engineering fields; and more. This guidebook offers everything those students may find useful.

This book offers encouragement to those students with questions, and comfort to those who have concerns about which schools offer the subjects they need and with which companies they can find employment post-graduation.

“The future is yours. Choose a path that makes sense for your life goal. The information contained in this book will lead you on your way and, hopefully, inspire you as a leader who empowers others along their educational pathway,” Winston reminds the reader.

Dr. Rachel Winston’s deep understanding of biological and biomedical engineering allows her to guide prospective students through all the possibilities in these fields.

August 11, 2023
The PERFECT PREDATOR: A Memoir by Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson – Memoirs, Medical, Microbiology

The Perfect Predator is just the kind of edge-of-the-seat scientific/medical thriller that Robin Cook and Michael Crichton used to write, that nail-biting search to find the right treatment in the nick of time to prevent a pandemic from sweeping the world.

The difference here is that The Perfect Predator is a true story, and the pandemic that epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee fights on behalf of her husband is one that scientists have been warning about for decades. Her husband wasn’t even the first to be struck down by it – but he was the first to receive a cure that could save many others. If only the world heeds the warning made so clear in this spellbinding book.

On vacation in Egypt in late 2015, Strathdee’s husband contracted a stomach bug. Nothing he hadn’t had before and shrugged off, but this time was different. Somewhere along the way from the pyramids to the clinic to the first of several medevac flights, Thomas Patterson came into contact with one of the deadly, antibiotic resistant virus strains known as “superbugs” – and it decided he’d make an excellent host. At least until it killed him.

And it tried. Over and over again. From Egypt to Frankfurt Germany to the world-class medical center at UC San Diego, where the couple both worked. Where they had contacts in just the fields that they’d need in order for Steffanie to cobble together the ultimate “Hail Mary” pass. That it would be possible to send a killer, a virus killer, into Tom’s body to eliminate the deadly virus that would otherwise eradicate Tom Patterson’s life.

If it worked, it would be a miracle. But also a clarion call to whoever reads this book that a century of use and overuse of antibiotics has created these superbugs that can no longer be vanquished by what was once a miracle drug. And that if the research and medical establishments don’t get a handle on the problem and find methods of treatment that do not rely on antibiotics, the 1.2 million people who died from antibiotic resistant bugs in 2019 is only going to be the tip of a very large and deadly iceberg.

The Perfect Predator is a compelling story of scientific research that has a very human-centric story at its beating heart.

Steffanie’s memoir of what happened, to her husband, to her family, to her colleagues and to herself is beautifully written. It is also a story that is absolutely chock-full of the science behind everything she does. Not to worry! Steffanie’s writing style thoroughly explains the science without ever getting bogged down – and while making it accessible to any non-scientist reading this account.

And she never loses sight of the human face on all those details, not just what she is going through personally. While she needs to separate “Wife Steffanie” from “Scientist Steffanie” in order to get things done. It is very clear how difficult that is. She is also painstaking in giving credit and kudos to all those who made this journey possible.

The Perfect Predator is the story of one woman’s successful quest for a medical miracle. Any reader who enjoys medical and/or scientific thrillers will be right on the edge of their seat every step of the way. But it’s the warning at the center of the story that will chill those same readers to their bones.

The Perfect Predator by Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson won 1st Place in the 2019 CIBA Journey Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoirs.

May 6, 2022
A DOCTOR a DAY: A Novel (EveryDoctor Series, Book 1) by Bernard Mansheim, M.D. – Literary Fiction, Medical, Social & Family Issues

A behind-the-scenes look at the life of a medical doctor, from med school to internship to private practice to the courtroom and beyond.

Dr. Luke James is in private practice. He has a loving wife and young daughter, and in some ways, his work brings joy and affirmation. But when he started his long journey through the healing profession, he knew there would be times when all his efforts would end in the loss of a patient. As this intensely emotional story opens, Dr. James is in court, defending himself in a malpractice suit in which, as the prosecutor accuses, “You let your patient die.” Told in flashbacks, we see how the lawsuit is calling into question many of the ideals the physician once cherished. He recalls crucial incidents from his fraught, exhausting, sometimes depressing, sometimes uplifting days of doctoring, the many times when his judgment might have prevented — or resulted in — the death of a patient in critical condition.

As he watches patients die, their last moments provide a profound reminder of the swiftness of death—” like flipping off a switch.” Yet Dr. James will continue to offer words of comfort and try daring remedies. Once he even donated his own blood in hope of a miracle cure for one of his patents. He thinks that the practice of medicine is an art and a craft that must be honed and believes that even the science of medicine inexorably dictates its own terms. As he remembers his work life in all its complex aspects, Dr. James ponders his decision for the patient whose demise is the focus of the malpractice trial. Was he “playing God?” Did he rob the patient of her right to a longer life, even though that would have been a life of an unconscious mind and a body riddled with tubes, unhealable wounds, and deterioration?

Author, and former practicing physician, Bernard Mansheim has fictionalized the duties and dichotomies of his own experience as a doctor so starkly that there can be no doubt of his deep connection to the questions posed and the answers sought by Luke James. Mansheim started his education with a BA in English Literature, and there is also no doubt of his ability to compose a gripping saga that tears away any blinders we might have had about the glamour of a doctor’s life.

At one point, Mansheim’s hero realizes he can’t allow himself to cry and begins to build an inner wall to hide some of his worst fears and sorrows, creating a backlog of unexamined depression. In an author’s note, Mansheim states that the suicide rate among doctors is 50% greater than that of the general population. It is known that a doctor a day commits suicide. This dismal trend has followed since 1858. His story boldly reveals some possible reasons for that grim statistic, while leaving room for hope for his embattled protagonist and others like him. This novel lays the foundation for discourse about this public health crisis and may be one of the most important books that you could read this year.

January 24, 2018
The Atheist and the Parrotfish by Richard Barager – Religious/Spiritual Fiction/Literary/Medical

Can the souls of the departed live on in their transplanted organs? Read Richard Barager’s edgy novel, The Atheist and the Parrotfish, and find out!

Dr. Cullen Brodie receives word that a donor is available for one of his patients, Ennis, a sixty-three-year-old cross-dresser desperately in need of a new heart and kidney. Cullen learns that the donor happens to be his boss’s daughter-in-law, Carla, who never recovered from a car accident.

At his three-month follow-up appointment, Ennis declares that his donor came to him in a dream and that Carla’s organs have exerted influences on him “beyond their intended bodily functions,” such as unexplained sweating and flushing, chattiness, a love for jazz as well as beets.

The possibility of Carla’s transmigration (passage of a soul into a living body) sends chills through Cullen. How can this be?

The uncanny “spiritual” experiences in Ennis’s life spark religious questions within Cullen’s mind, particularly ones directed toward an unresolved conflict embedded in his past.

Ennis has some other issues, as well. But his (or more correctly, Carla’s) take shape in an obsession with locating the donor’s family. When he does, however, that familial connection stirs up personality clashes between Ennis and Elaine (Ennis’s feminine side), and Carla.

Amid the turmoil, Ennis is aware of Carla desperately trying to relay a critical life-changing message to her family, but he needs Cullen’s help to deliver it. The real trick will be whether or not Ennis can convince Cullen before Carla destroys Ennis altogether.

Coming-out-of-the-closet late produces in Ennis a multitude of inner struggles and unsettling childhood memories. In the midst of his personal chaos, Ennis has amazing moments of clarity (with the help of Carla) to see through people and their faults.

Cullen, on the other hand, finds himself between a rock and a hard place dealing with Ennis’s ongoing commentary about Carla. “When all else fails, listen to your patient” is Cullen’s default motto to identify patients’ diagnoses. With Ennis however, Cullen finds this motto difficult to live by, especially since it is both extremely unusual and disconcerting for Cullen to even consider the possibility of life after death – or the very existence of a soul. As a result, Cullen’s attempt to apply reason to an unreasonable situation leads him to revisit conflicts from his own past.

Contradiction is a key narrative theme in this work. One story coiled within another builds while Barager slowly and masterfully weaves the two seemingly opposing accounts together. Chapters alternate between characters dealing with past and present situations, and scenes that include shocking, and at times, heart-stopping endings.

Pages are replete with rich descriptions of religious and ethical conundrums, philosophy, and theological ambiguities. The latter, readers may not recognize until much later in the story.

Rising author Richard Barager pulls from his daytime job experience as a nephrologist to create a gripping human-interest account packed with complex characters and spiritual paradoxes.

“A fascinating story, The Atheist and the Parrotfish, which merges age-old spiritual questions with the latest in modern medicine, is replete with complex characters and riveting pages that brim with religious and ethical conundrums, making Richard Barager’s novel a thought-provoking top-of-the-line read.” – Chanticleer Reviews

February 23, 2017