Stephen Stowers M.D.

In Box of Birds - What New Zealand taught me about life and the practice of medicine, heart surgeon Stephen Stowers presents 95 theses (well, not quite 95) decrying the corporatization of the American healthcare system / industry. He does so particularly effectively by making numerous comparisons to the New Zealand system.

Stowers wants to promote a level of doctor – patient professional intimacy that seems to have gone extinct here in America. “My hope is to foster more humane interactions between doctors and patients all around the world, particularly in so-called “developed” countries such as the US.” He relates various instances of just how much more humane the kiwi model of practicing medicine remains.

While the book is not even two-hundred pages long, it does require some serious concentration to take in heavy detail. Some medical passages are frighteningly detailed. He describes a protocol for doing a single-handed nuclear stress test down to the use of sestamibi. He is doing so to highlight what one man can do in New Zealand which in an American hospital would involve numerous people. Acknowledging that much, any use of sestamibi is an overuse when writing for a lay person.

On the flip side of the coin, he pivots into details of family life and personal life having no necessary connection to his general theme. This shift may offer a breather of sorts, but more likely, he feels some need to keep his humanity firmly in the reader's mind. For me, there was no such need, but other readers may subconsciously appreciate it.

These stylistic foibles not withstanding, the points he makes are brutal:

"given my new vantage point from the other side of the world, I was coming to believe that the corporatization of American medicine forced doctors in the US to prioritize enticing patients into ever-costlier forms of intervention and testing, even when of unproven benefit. "

He backs up the charge with a diversity of instances of procedures he personally was pressured to do or had seen others compelled to do. Further, he details the business model of patient treatment, giving the reader reason to cringe as he details the mechanics of converting medical practice into a business venture. And then there is insurance . . .… (altro)