Healthcare
Last updated: May 05, 2025
Healthcare is not simply a question of looking after the health of individuals. Illness, how they spread and how we deal with the consequences can tell us a lot about society. The provision of healthcare is also one of the most complex areas of public policy. We have interviews recommending books on healthcare in all its dimensions.
Arthur Ammann, clinical professor of pediatric immunology at the University of California chooses his best books on HIV/AIDS and puts the fight against that disease it a broader context of fighting epidemics. Writer and journalist, Seth Mnookin, chooses his best vaccine books and talks about how the science that is behind the fight against any disease is always influenced by a particular social context. Elad Yom-Tov, who works on health issues at Microsoft Research chooses his best books on health and the internet. The journalist Johann Hari chooses his best books on the war on drugs and clinical neurophysiologist Suzanne O’Sullivan chooses her best books on psychosomatic illnesses.
On related public policy issues, Dr Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, talks about public health. Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics at MIT who advised the Obama administration on healthcare reform, recommends his best books on public finance and the challenges that funding healthcare throws up. Health economist Austin Frakt talks about the US healthcare reform, how it evolved and what needs to change.
Italian cardiologist, Tato Grasso, discusses medicinal marijuana and its therapeutic uses.
The best books on HIV/Aids, recommended by Arthur Ammann
When dealing with epidemics, science does not have all the answers and relying on a new miracle drug is not always the solution. We must also learn the lessons of history, argues the veteran doctor of the HIV/Aids epidemic, Arthur Ammann.
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1
Studies in Hysteria
by Josef Breuer & Sigmund Freud -
2
Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris
by Asti Hustvedt -
3
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
by Oliver Sacks -
4
Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology
by Paul Broks -
5
The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves
by Stephen Grosz
The best books on Psychosomatic Illness, recommended by Suzanne O'Sullivan
The best books on Psychosomatic Illness, recommended by Suzanne O'Sullivan
We still understand very little about the workings of the brain, and yet we dismiss the tricks it can play on us as undeserving of the same sympathy as physical illness. Neurologist and author Suzanne O’Sullivan recommends the best books on psychosomatic illness.
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1
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
by Atul Gawande -
2
The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands
by Eric Topol -
3
A Billion Wicked Thoughts
by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam -
4
Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity — What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves
by Christian Rudder -
5
Nudge
by Cass Sunstein & Richard Thaler
The best books on Health and the Internet, recommended by Elad Yom-Tov
The best books on Health and the Internet, recommended by Elad Yom-Tov
A quick search of your symptoms on the internet may lead to an acute case of ‘cyberchondria.’ But it may also provide data which will improve health and even save lives. Elad Yom-Tov, the author of Crowdsourced Health, recommends books showing how internet data and data science can provide exciting new ways of conducting health and medical research.
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1
Drug Addicts are Human Beings
by Henry Smith Williams -
2
The Murderers: The Shocking Story of the Narcotic Gangs
by Henry Anslinger and Will Oursler -
3
Murder City
by Charles Bowden -
4
The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit
by Bruce Alexander -
5
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
by Gabor Maté
The best books on The War on Drugs, recommended by Johann Hari
The best books on The War on Drugs, recommended by Johann Hari
Everything we have been told about drugs and drug addiction and how society should deal with them is wrong, says the British author and journalist Johann Hari. He chooses the best books on ‘the war on drugs.’
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1
Polio: An American Story
by David Oshinsky -
2
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
by Arthur Allen -
3
The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis
by Paul Offit -
4
Microbe Hunters
by Paul de Kruif -
5
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic
by Steven Johnson
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
The history of vaccines is fascinating, and we highly recommend all the books discussed in this interview with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus and Professor of Science Writing at MIT. These are gripping reads that tell the story of vaccines, medicine’s greatest life-saver, and the risks people took to find them.
The best books on Public Health, recommended by Thomas Frieden
Infectious disease expert—and former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—Thomas Frieden, takes us inside the world of fighting epidemics, eradicating disease and confronting the preventable damage we do to ourselves.
The best books on Public Finance, recommended by Jonathan Gruber
A key figure behind the Massachusetts and Obama healthcare reforms tells us about the purpose and uses of public finance economics, and explains how Romneycare and Obamacare are both different and alike.
The best books on Healthcare Reform, recommended by Austin Frakt
If you were starting from scratch, no one would design a healthcare system like America’s. The health economist tells us how it evolved and what needs to change. He picks the best books on US healthcare reform.
The best books on Medicinal Marijuana, recommended by Tato Grasso
The Italian cardiologist and fellow of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine proposes five books on Medicinal Marijuana and explains why we should be reading them.
