Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
May 5, 2023
Drawing on the analyses in his recent book, The Present Illness: American Health Care and Its Afflictions, Dr. Shapiro will explore the reasons why it has been so difficult to solve the many problems in American health care. He identifies three underlying phenomena that shape the behavior of physicians and their organizations, medical schools and their faculty, hospitals and health systems, other corporations in the health sector, scientists and their sponsors, and also patients and the public. These are the commodification of health care and health by all the groups of participants; the consciousness of the actors—their attitudes, values, expectations, interests, and perceived needs; and the communication and the structure of the relationships across these groups, which tend to reinforce the worst tendencies in all groups. He will discuss a range of steps that can be taken to address these many problems, but that meaningful reform will need to be broad and deep.
Dr. Martin Shapiro obtained his medical degree from McGill University and a PhD in history and Master’s in Public Health from UCLA. He is Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. Prior to coming to Cornell, he spent many years at UCLA, where he was chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research for 25 years. He is a general internist who has practiced both inpatient and outpatient GIM. He also is a health services researcher who has studied accessibility of care and health disparities, scientific misconduct, pharmaceutical advertising, and scientific authorship, among other topics. He led a major national study of care for HIV disease. He is also interested in such conditions as hypertension and hepatitis C, in empowering communities in relation to the research enterprise, and in trying to improve health and health care for those most in need. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and of the Association of American Physicians and is a past president of the Society of General Internal Medicine. He enjoys mentoring students, residents, fellows and junior faculty members. His new book, The Present Illness: American Health Care and Its Afflictions, has just been published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
May 5, 2023
Drawing on the analyses in his recent book, The Present Illness: American Health Care and Its Afflictions, Dr. Shapiro will explore the reasons why it has been so difficult to solve the many problems in American health care. He identifies three underlying phenomena that shape the behavior of physicians and their organizations, medical schools and their faculty, hospitals and health systems, other corporations in the health sector, scientists and their sponsors, and also patients and the public. These are the commodification of health care and health by all the groups of participants; the consciousness of the actors—their attitudes, values, expectations, interests, and perceived needs; and the communication and the structure of the relationships across these groups, which tend to reinforce the worst tendencies in all groups. He will discuss a range of steps that can be taken to address these many problems, but that meaningful reform will need to be broad and deep.
Dr. Martin Shapiro obtained his medical degree from McGill University and a PhD in history and Master’s in Public Health from UCLA. He is Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. Prior to coming to Cornell, he spent many years at UCLA, where he was chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research for 25 years. He is a general internist who has practiced both inpatient and outpatient GIM. He also is a health services researcher who has studied accessibility of care and health disparities, scientific misconduct, pharmaceutical advertising, and scientific authorship, among other topics. He led a major national study of care for HIV disease. He is also interested in such conditions as hypertension and hepatitis C, in empowering communities in relation to the research enterprise, and in trying to improve health and health care for those most in need. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and of the Association of American Physicians and is a past president of the Society of General Internal Medicine. He enjoys mentoring students, residents, fellows and junior faculty members. His new book, The Present Illness: American Health Care and Its Afflictions, has just been published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
