A Perfect Offering

In the often triumphal history of medicine, doctors are seen as heroes, and we revere them, but patients are rarely mentioned. Patients are usually portrayed as passive recipients of medical and nursing care. For the most part, patients are not viewed as active partners in medical care and certainly not as contributors to the advances in medicine or in healthcare. A Patient's History of Medicine looks at the history of medicine from the patient's perspective. Its focus is both historical and philosophical. When someone becomes ill, we, as patients, and our families choose between doctors and other health practitioners. This choice has had little place in the formal history of medicine; for academic practitioners all non-doctors were quacks. Dr. Glouberman considers the successes and failures of the choices we make for care and how that has affected the history of medicine. He also considers carefully the search for alternative medicine that has always been and continues to be part of the healthcare environment. Glouberman also explores the changing ideas about the nature of human health.

Peter O’Brien has written or edited seven books, including Introduction to Literature: British, American, Canadian (Harper & Row) and Cleopatra at the Breakfast Table: Why I Studied Latin With My Teenager and How I Discovered the Daughterland (Quattro). Born in New York, he attended Notre Dame, McGill, and the Banff School of Fine Arts. He has published widely on literature, art, and family life, and exhibits and publishes his artwork internationally. Harold Heft was the author of The Shape of This Dying: Remembering Alexander Bercovitch (Mosaic) and Build a Better Book Club (Macmillan Canada, written with Peter O’Brien). He published articles and reviews in The Globe and Mail, National Post, Montreal Gazette, and Tablet, and worked as a senior communications strategist for many of Canada’s leading healthcare organizations. At age 51, after a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor, Harold died on 23 July 2015. Suzanne Heft grew up in the U.S., the Middle East, and Europe, with her head bent over a book, riveted by stories of redemption and transformation. After graduating from the University of Toronto, she became a passionate advocate for worthy charitable causes as a fundraising executive. She is the mother of two teenage sons and the wife of Harold Heft.