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This Book Club series led by Dr. Nikita Joshi (@NJoshi8) and Dr. Jordana Haber (@JoJoHaber), introduces you to books that are pertinent to medical practice and the culture of medical education. Discussion will be held every other month. The goal is to share books, both nonfiction and fiction, medical and not, that can deepen our clinical practice and commitment to delivering great medical education to learners. Whether you are a physician, nurse, paramedic, or allied health care provider, we would love for you to join in on the discussion on this blog.

ALiEM Book Club: Beyond the ED Series

The ALiEM Book Club’s Beyond the ED Series headed by Dr. Taku Taira (@TakuTaira) is meant to be a way to share books that leaders within the medical community love and treasure without having the usual bookclub discussion associated with it. These books are sure to challenge and enrich the reader.

Suggestions

There are so many great books out there and not enough time to get to them. Please let us know if you come across any book that you feel would be worthwhile reading as a part of our book club!

Previous books

DateBookAuthorBook Discussion and Commentary
January 2020Forget a Mentor, Find a SponsorSylvia Ann HewlettBlog Link
December 2016Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary PresentationsDan RoamBlog Link
November 20, 2016Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us AllDavid and Tom KelleyBlog Link
October 16, 2016On the Move: A LifeOliver SacksBlog Link
August 14, 2016A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and BackKevin HazzardBlog Link
June 10, 2016The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer AgeRobert WachterBlog Link
May 13, 2016Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to LeadSheryl SandbergBlog Link
April 8, 2016When Breath Becomes AirPaul KalanithiBlog Link
March 12, 2016Steal Like An ArtistAustin KleonBlog Link
February 12, 2016Bouncebacks! Emergency Department Cases: ED ReturnsMichael B. Weinstock, Ryan Longstreth, Gregory L. HenryBlog Link
January 15, 2016Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
Svetlana AlexievichBlog Link
January 8, 2016A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: StoriesJohn MurrayBlog Link
November 17, 2015Let Me Heal: The Opportunity to Preserve Excellence in American Medicine
Kenneth LudmererBlog Link
October 9, 2015Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
Sam QuinonesBlog Link
August 14, 2015The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide To Personal Finance And Investing
James M. DahleBlog Link
July 10, 2015The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of ColorblindnessMichelle AlexanderBlog Link
June 12, 2015How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical ThinkingJordan EllenbergBlog Link
May 8, 2015We Need to Talk About KevinLionel ShriverBlog Link
April 10, 2015The Art of ChoosingSheena IyengarBlog Link
March 21, 2015Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the EndAtul GawandeBlog Link
February 13, 2015The Emperor of all MaladiesSiddhartha MukherjeeBlog Link
January 16, 2015Brain on Fire: My Month of MadnessSusannah CahalanBlog Link
December 12, 2014Risk Savvy: How to Make Good DecisionsGerd GigerenzerBlog Link
November 21, 2014Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of TellingEdgar ScheinBlog Link
October 10, 2014When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary TestsLeana Wen and Joshua KosowskyBlog Link
September 19, 2014A History of Present Illness: StoriesLouise AronsonBlog Link
July 11, 2014David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling GiantsMalcolm GladwellBlog Link
May 12, 2014How We DieSherwin NulandBlog Link
March 14, 2014What Doctors FeelDanielle OfriBlog Link
February 14, 2014DriveDaniel PinkBlog Link
January 10, 2014One Room School HouseSalman KhanBlog Link
December 13, 2013Five Days at MemorialSheri FinkBlog Link
Google Hangout on Air
November 8, 2013Interpreter of Maladies – A short story “Temporary Matter”
Jhumpa LahiriBlog Link
Podcast Wrap Up
October 11, 2013The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at WorkShawn AchorBlog Link
Google Hangout on Air video
September 13, 2012House of GodSamuel ShemBlog Link
August 9, 2013The Checklist ManifestoAtul GawandeBlog Link
Curated Commentary
July 19, 2013Difficult Conversations
D Stone, B Patton, S HeenBlog Link
June 28, 2013The Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksRebecca SklootBlog Link

Past Book Club Leadership

Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD)
Dr. Brent Thoma (@Brent_Thoma)

* Disclaimer: We have no affiliations financial or otherwise with the authors, the books, hyperlinks, videos or Amazon.

ALiEM Bookclub: The House of God

Screen Shot 2013-08-11 at 7.11.29 AMWritten as satire when published first, The House of God polarized the medical community. Doctors in training cheered the book as a voice for their generation to describe the grueling nature of medical training. Others were appalled by the crass language and apparent lack of humanity when describing patient care. Reading the book became a rite of passage for young trainees.  (more…)

By |2016-11-11T19:03:47-08:00Sep 13, 2013|Book Club|
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The Checklist Manifesto: ALiEM Book Club Synopsis

Our dear readers have chimed in and we’ve received amazing commentary and feedback regarding this month’s book The Checklist Manifesto. Please read the summary of the discussion below. 

CHECKLISTS ARE EVERYWHERE IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE

Our readers have spotted checklists in a number of places including PALS/ACLS algorithms, Procedural Sedation protocols, and Clinical Decision Rules. Dr. Javier Benitez (@jvrbntz) stated that he uses a checklist for resuscitations at the start of shifts. Dr. Michelle Lin (@M_Lin) stated “We already use our own mental checklists in Med[icine]. It’s just not explicitly shared. Should have more overt shared checklists.” 

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By |2019-02-19T18:09:09-08:00Aug 23, 2013|Book Club, Social Media & Tech|
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ALiEM Bookclub: The Checklist Manifesto

Introduction

Checklists have now almost become status quo in current medicine.  My earliest encounter with the surgical checklist phenomenon was during PGY1 as an off-service intern. At this point, early adopters were running around with “Checkmark” safety-pins on their surgical caps, trying to encourage everyone to take up the cause. There were jokes and exasperated sighs each time a case started, but most complied with the task at the behest of opinion leaders (often the senior OR nurses in the room). Two years later I returned to see a culture change. OR teams seemed to communicate better, things seemed to flow.

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By |2016-11-11T19:02:41-08:00Aug 9, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|
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ALiEM Book Club: THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO – Join the conversation

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New Horizons

Do you like the ALiEM Book Club?  Well we like you too!…  so much so that we want YOU to join in on the next book discussion! We are taking the blog and book club to another level by pairing up with Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD), an academic emergentologist from Canada. We are breaking the barriers of the internet and laying the foundation for a real-time, interactive discussion utilizing social media.

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By |2016-11-16T09:37:58-08:00Jul 22, 2013|Book Club|
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ALiEM Book Club: Difficult Conversations

Difficult Conversations

Debriefing is a difficult skill to acquire. It is a little to easy to ask accusatory questions when you witness things that went wrong, or in a direction not anticipated. It’s also hard when trying to keep your own horror and shock from what you just witnessed (how could you forget to get a fingerstick glucose??!!). But rarely these types of learning situations go well if we don’t learn how to develop high quality debriefing skills. Similarly without debriefing expertise, simulations that we conduct lose purpose and meaning. There are many ways to learn effective debriefing skills, and I want to share a reference that many of my simulation mentors gave me when I began building my niche in education. Reading the book “Difficult Conversations” by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project will help you gain understanding of how to approach debriefing and maximize learning in a safe environment.

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By |2016-11-11T19:02:33-08:00Jul 19, 2013|Book Club, Simulation|
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ALiEM Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

HenriettaLacks

Just like scores of other premedical students all striving to get acceptance to medical school, I volunteered and did research during college. I elected to work in the Virology department because I wanted to study viruses like HIV, RSV, and SARS that were causing havoc on our society. I do recall that we used HeLa cells frequently in our research. In fact, most scientists in that department used HeLa cells on a regular basis regardless of the focus of their projects. I didn’t think much of the cells and I definitely never thought of where or from whom those cells may have come from. They were simply a day to day part of my research, just like assays used for western blots. It wasn’t until I learned of the publication of the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [Amazon link], that I came to learn about the incredible back story of these amazing HeLa cells. I believe that this book has valuable lessons to teach us clinicians about our patients, how we relate to our patients, and the significant roles we inadvertently play in their lives.

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By |2016-11-11T19:02:21-08:00Jun 28, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|
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Launching the ALiEM Book Club

Everyone involved in medicine has read a significant amount of books over their lifetime. Some of those books were read willingly, whereas others not so willingly (sorry, Histology textbook). Regardless, most of us have an inner love of reading and continue to do so even when we are not forced to do so for a test or class.

We are launching “The ALiEM Book Club”!

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By |2019-02-19T18:55:48-08:00Jun 28, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|
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