Advances in medicine have brought us artificial organs, instruments, and the digitization of record keeping. Technology has not only revolutionized medicine, but so has the very idea that there is a scientific solution to human disease, ailments, and health problems. This book explores how the technologies of medicine are created; how society, patients, and practitioners respond to the problems and successes of their use; and how this response changes them. To demonstrate the different ways through which medical innovations exert their influence, a number of selected technologies, such as the stethoscope, the X-ray, ultrasounds, and the computerized health record, are examined. The understandings gained through this exploration are then applied to suggest fundamental ways to alter thinking and practice in health care and thereby more effectively meet the challenges of living with technological medicine. Dr. Stanley Joel Reiser?s work will be indispensable to a wide readership of health professionals, health policymakers, and the general public.