A Doctor's Story: A Personal Journey and a Call for Reform

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AuthorHouse, Dec 20, 2006 - Health & Fitness - 216 pages

A Doctor’s Story uses the highly personalized narrative of one woman’s educational and professional path to highlight shocking flaws in our profit driven medical delivery system.  Employing moving  anecdotes to illustrate glaring deficiencies in health care policy and delivery, and in medical training, the book takes a refreshing and distinct approach to a topic on the mind of virtually every American. Can we reshape our expensive, inefficient and inhumane health care system  to meet the needs of all? The book is structured as an autobiography, so the discussion of policy is laced with humor, compassion, sarcasm and anger. It is, as the title states, a story, not a scientific study or research project. The book’s premise is that real experiences of real people can speak volumes, and that one person can effect change.

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About the author (2006)

Dr. Stowe describes herself as “a mother and activist first, a physician and attorney second.” Grounded in a lifelong commitment to social justice, she is a tireless advocate of sweeping health care reform. After graduating cum laude from Phillips Academy in 1977, she attended Yale, receiving  her BA in 1981. She received her MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1985. Following a pediatric internship at New York University Medical Center, she attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1990. She then returned to  New York to complete pediatric residency training at Montefiore Medical Center’s Residency Program in Social Medicine. Committed to providing  medical care to underserved communities, she moved to North Dakota in 1992 to practice on a remote Native American Territory.

 

Newly aware of the crisis in rural health care, she sought an underserved, demographically complex region in which to implement a unique plan. Texas , ranking near last in the health status of children, fit the profile. She relocated there in 1994 and co-founded  the Frontis Project, a non-profit health care facility that provided medical care and social, support and advocacy services to 11,500 children.

 

In 2004, she resigned that position to pursue her dual passions of  health care and educational reform by writing and consulting. In 2005, she founded  Health Education, Advocacy & Literacy, and is now working on growing The Real School. She also practices with a small group. She has been honored by the Houston Young Lawyers Association and the Center for the Healing of Racism. Her work has been featured in the Houston Chronicle and numerous local newspapers. She has done dozens of radio and television spots. Although she has lived in Texas for over 12 years, she remains a member of the New York Bar.

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