Reviews and Notes: The Secret(s) of Good Patient Care: Thoughts on Medicine in the 21st Century

WC Felch. 189 pages. Westport, CT: Praeger; 1996. $49.95. ISBN 0-275-95448-X. Order phone 203-226-3571.

Reflective, relaxed, perceptive essays on the patient–physician relationship, clinical procedures, medical education, the organization and economics of medical care, and public policy on medical benefits and services. These essays are fair-minded, are not ideologic, and carry a well-informed historical perspective. Through them runs Dr. Felch's uneasiness about what the medical profession has done to itself and its future. Although readers have heard many of these themes before, not many will have had the chance to read about them in prose as direct and clear as that provided here. Be aware that this book is more about the second than the first half of its title. The price is stiff for a book of such modest dimensions.

• Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians