Bøger af Alan Cassels

Why wouldn't you want to be screened to see if you're at risk for cancer, heart disease, or another potentially lethal condition? After all, better safe than sorry. Right? Not so fast, says Alan Cassels. His "Seeking Sickness" takes us inside the world of medical screening, where well-meaning practitioners and a profit-motivated industry offer to save our lives by exploiting our fears. He writes that promoters of screening overpromise on its benefits and downplay its harms, which can range from the merely annoying to the life threatening. If you're facing a screening test for breast or prostate cancer, high cholesterol, or low testosterone, someone is about to turn you into a patient. You need to ask yourself one simple question: "Am I ready for all the things that could go wrong?"

"The Cochrane Collaboration... rivals the Human Genome Project in its potential implications for modern medicine." - C. David Naylor, The Lancet"How can we have a rational health service if we don't know which of the things being done in it are useful and which are useless or possibly even harmful?" - Archie Cochrane, in Effectiveness and Efficiency, 1972 What's hocus-pocus and what really works?In the complex, ever-evolving realm of modern medicine, how can you even begin to understand what's hocus-pocus and what really works? Best-selling author and researcher Alan Cassels answers with a single word: Cochrane.Though largely unknown to the public, the Cochrane Collaboration is made up of more than 30,000 medical researchers and consumer representatives from more than 100 countries¿-¿unbiased experts and investigators who parse the science of modern health care and delve deep into the evidence (or lack thereof) to determine what works and what doesn't.In this frank, factual and entertaining volume, Cassels draws from more than 160 interviews to shed light on this international cadre of medical truth-seekers whose rigorous work helps prevent medical misjudgement, reduce unnecessary suffering, preserve lives and circumvent the squandering of billions of dollars.ABOUT THE AUTHOR - ALAN CASSELSAlan Cassels is a University of Victoria health policy researcher and a trusted media commentator on medical policy issues. He is the co-author of the internationally bestselling book "Selling Sickness", and a frequent contributor to magazines, newspapers and radio programs.

This text argues that international relations in the 20th century have been characterized by a dichotomy between traditional, egotistical "Realpolitik" and ideological foreign policy. Topics covered include the two World Wars, communism, fascist Italy and the Cold War.