In the Hands of Doctors: Touch and Trust in Medical Care

Written by a highly respected medical historian, this book examines how and why medical caring including the role of touch and procedure in caregiving has evolved in recent decades and how these changes have affected doctor-patient trust as well as patient health and the "health" of the current medical system.

Draws on medical history since the early 19th century to demonstrate how the procedural aspects of medicine are foundational to trusting doctor-patient relationships

Examines how the diminished authority of physicians as decision makers and consumerization of medical services have complicated caregiving

Provides concrete proposals for reinvigorating primary care medicine by developing a new primary care specialty and making better use of nurse practitioners and other nonphysician providers