This volume covers quite a number of medical and health-related aspects and starts with newspaper articles about the American Healthcare System and touches areas like the Medicaid Program and the Obama Healthcare Reform; another chapter about Medical Research Methods includes Molecular Psychiatry, Gene Therapy and Stem Cells methods. Press reports about Drug Consumption show Heroin Addicts and Results of Alcohol Abuse; other pieces discuss Mental Institutions, Occupational Diseases and Ethical Questions like Medical Malpractice and Secret Cold War Medical Experiments. Chapters from books cover, for example, Polio Infections, Smoking and the Mighty Tobacco Industry, Warfare Medicine and the Discovery of Penicillin, while editorial cartoons criticize some effects of modern medicine, followed by selected photos.

Heinz-Dietrich Fischer, EdD, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany.