In one of the essays in The Best American Medical Writing 2009, a doctor declares that medicine is "knowledge, judgment, experience, and luck." The stories collected here explore each of those facets and many more, all of them essential parts of a field that deals daily with terrible tragedy and triumphant recovery, with life and death and everything in between. Including articles written by Jerome Groopman, Oliver Sacks, and Michael Sokolove, and featuring pieces from publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Harper's, The New Yorker, and Discover, this book spotlights the most important issues and the most skillful writers in this fascinating discipline. Book jacket.