Images of Memorable Cases: 50 Years at the Bedside

IMAGES OF MEMORABLE CASES:
50 Years at the Bedside

• About the authors
• Reviews of Images of Memorable Cases

As modern American medicine has come to rely increasingly on sophisticated technology, the bedside skills of doctors have steadily declined. Using one’s mind and sensory faculties to make diagnoses is now something of a lost art—particularly among young physicians.

In Images of Memorable Cases: 50 Years at the Bedside, Dr. Herbert L. Fred presents 153 of the many memorable cases he has encountered in his long, distinguished career as a full-time medical educator. Each case is presented with text and pictures recreating the experience of the doctor first encountering the patient, and the reader is challenged to diagnose the patient’s condition before turning the page to see the real-life diagnosis. The book is both an educational tool and an evocation of traditional “bedside medicine.” Laying down the gauntlet to his readers, Dr. Fred challenges them to “draw upon their entire diagnostic armamentarium in each case. From the material we provide—limited at times to the image alone—informed readers should be able to make or strongly suspect the correct diagnosis.”

Images of Memorable Cases is a fascinating series of whodunits, inviting readers to confront diseases that often masquerade as other diseases, and to read the clues in a patient’s appearance and the data collected before rendering a diagnosis. “The challenge is yours,” Dr. Fred says. “Enjoy the journey.”

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Herbert L. Fred, MD, MACP, is one of the nation’s best-known medical educators and diagnosticians. He is the author of more than 400 publications, including three books—each a collection of provocative essays—providing philosophical insights into disease, the practice of medicine, the challenge of difficult diagnosis, the joys, frustrations, and rewards of teaching, the pleasurable pain of learning, and the exhilaration of true scholarship. Among his many awards are a Presidential Citation, given him by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The American College of Physicians named him its Distinguished Teacher for 2004, and awarded him Mastership the same year. In 2005, he received the TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award. The Herb Fred Medical Society, Inc., founded in 2002 by Dr. Fred’s former trainees, honors him for “a half century of bedside teaching.” Dr. Fred is an emeritus member of the American Osler Society and has served on the editorial boards of numerous national medical journals. He is currently Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He lives in Houston with his wife, Judy. They have seven children.

Over more than 40 years, Hendrik A. van Dijk has authored, produced or directed audio-visual projects, educational films and videos, still photographs, book illustrations, and slide presentations about medicine. After his training as an aerial photographer/cartographer by the Dutch Royal Air Force and his subsequent graduation from the Dutch School for Professional Photography in The Hague, Mr. van Dijk made his way to Duke University in 1968, where he began working in biomedical communications. He has gone on to become one of the nation’s leading experts in that field. Most recently, he was Director of the Graphic Communications Group at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, until his retirement in 2005. He lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife Yoka. They have two children.

REVIEWS

“This is the best medical book I’ve ever read."
—Steven Hawes, MD, Director of Primary Care and Subspecialty Medicine, Dorn Veterans Administration Medical Center, Columbia, S.C.

“This wonderful book should be in the library of every hospital, department of medicine, and teacher of internal medicine.”
—Paxton Howard, Jr., MD, Professor of Medicine and Humanities in Medicine, Scott & White Clinic, Temple, Texas

“This is a truly marvelous collection of medical images that would be very hard to find in one place anywhere else.”
—James T. Willerson, MD, President: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, President-Elect and Medical Director: Texas Heart Institute

“This book should be on the bookshelf of every physician. It is truly a collector’s item.”
—Sara E. Walker, MD, MACP, MACR, Professor Emerita, Division of Immunology & Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Missouri

“An encapsulation of more than 50 years of inspired teaching in a beautifully printed and edited book.”
—Darryl M. Williams, MD, MPH, FACP, Professor Emeritus, Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine

“This beautifully illustrated book should be required reading for all medical students and housestaff.”
—David Y. Graham, MD, Chief, Division of Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine

“The vignettes in this splendid book (many with striking illustrations of skin disorders) reveal the critical role of careful, Sherlockian observation in the diagnosis of sometimes dauntingly cryptic diseases.”
—John E. Wolf, Jr., MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Dermatology, Baylor College of Medicine

"Medical writers would greatly benefit from having this well-written, exciting book in their medical libraries."
—American Medical Writers Association Journal