Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7545.859-a

BMJ 2006;332:859 (8 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7545.859-a

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Book

Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Imagine, if you will, a long line running from left to right,from one extreme to the other. The pole at the left hand endof the continuum represents a pathological obsession with newhealth technologies, and at the right hand end an all-consumingcynical rejection of the value of medical advances. Somewherein the middle is the healthy scepticism we all strive for, yetfind so elusive, particularly when we or our loved ones fallill.

Richard A Deyo,Donald L Patrick

Amacon, $24.95, pp 336 ISBN 0 8144 0845 1www.amacombooks.org

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Mining a mountain of good data, Richard Deyo and Donald Patrickuse their new book Hope or Hype to argue convincingly that asa culture we are currently far from that idyllic middle point,sitting way off on the left hand end of the line, obsessed beyondreason with medical technology. Reinforcing this obsession,they . . . [Full text of this article]

Ray Moynihan, medical writer and author

Byron Bay, Australia ray.moynihan@newcastle.edu.au