Medicine at the Crossroads is a collection of essays based on a column I originally published in the Waco-Tribune Herald in the early 2000s.
It touches on three different but inseparable perspectives – the physician, the patient, and the healthcare system – and addresses some of the most pressing questions in medicine today.
Individually, each story of illness, medicine, and healing provides a tiny, fragmented glimpse into the heart of a problem.
Ultimately, the purpose of Medicine at the Crossroads is to help us find our way back to compassionate, humane health care for all. Together, may we find healing—for ourselves, our loved ones, and our system.
REVIEWS
“Dr. Attas’ forty years as a very successful cardiologist, teacher, and mentor – coupled with his being an ordained minister – provides him with a unique perspective on the many challenges that modern health care faces today. The book is insightful, challenging and appropriately questioning what the future is for health care in America and how society must address some of the most important ethical questions surrounding the delivery of care now and in the future.”
JOEL T. ALLISON, FACHE
Retired CEO, Baylor Scott and White Health | Senior Advisor, Robbins Institute for Health Policy and Leadership
“This is an important contribution to the conversation about the future of healthcare, reminding future healthcare professionals of their sacred duty to care for patients and urging us all to build a healthcare system based on compassion, wisdom and justice.”
LAUREN BARRON, MD
Director, Medical Humanities Program, Baylor University
“It’s not only a handbook about recognizing patients’ needs in body and soul, but about how physicians, nurses, and anyone who holds the reality of life and death in their hands every day at work can start to recognize and meet his or her own needs of body and soul.”
KERRY EGAN, MDIV
Author, On Living