The Danger Within Us

“Blazing a new trail in medical research, Lenzer examines these medical devices and the industry surrounding them…These well-researched findings show how medical devices and implants may do more harm than good.”–Shelf Awareness
“Engrossing and terrifying…Lenzer takes readers deep into the processes by which medical devices are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thorough research is skillfully interwoven with the story of Dennis Fegan, whose struggle to expose the dangers of an implanted device that nearly killed him is both gripping and emotionally affecting… Highly recommended.”–Library Journal (Starred Review)
“In this disturbing and riveting book, the indefatigable investigative reporter Jeanne Lenzer tells the story of how millions of Americans are implanted with medical devices with almost no proof that they are safe. Lenzer exposes the web of commercial incentives governing their use, and the refusal of the manufacturers and the FDA to take responsibility when things go wrong.”–Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief, the NewEngland Journal of Medicine, and author of The TruthAbout the Drug Companies
“Jeanne Lenzer has pulled off a brilliant literary hat trick; a page-turning tale of one patient’s odyssey, combined with hard-hitting investigative reporting and a compelling call to arms to fix America’s broken health care system. Before you get anything implanted in your body, read this book.”–Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated
“Jeanne Lenzer’s incisive investigation of one man’s quest for medical justice - and the regulatory failures behind it - is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the risks faced by all of us during routine procedures. And it should be, for all of us, a call to action.”–DeborahBlum, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Poisoner’sHandbook
“Lenzer makes an excellent, often disturbing case for ‘a new national attitude toward healthcare.’”–Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Lenzer, a medical investigative journalist, powerfully details some alarming reasons hospital CEOs, insurance executives, and doctors become millionaires… Readers will be impressed with Lenzer’s profiles of doctors who decry unnecessary treatments and tests, decline to take money for drug company sponsored talks, advocate disentangling money and medicine, and promote ‘doing as little as possible to patients and as much as possible for patients.’”–Booklist (Starred Review)
“Lenzer’s gripping and carefully researched book addresses why America needs a New Deal in health care. This book enlightens, enrages, and will surely help advance that cause.”–Bernard Lown, cardiologist, Emeritus Professor, Harvard School of Public Health and Nobel Peace Prize recipient
“More than a decade ago, longtime BMJ contributor Lenzer abandoned her career as an emergency room physician associate to become an investigative medical journalist. Her debut book, an inspired inquiry into the politics of the industry, is startling and provocative … Reading like a cross between a riveting medical thriller and ‘a Kafka novel’, the book is a powerful cautionary tale … An impassioned exposé that uncovers a significant danger within the contemporary health care industry.”–Kirkus
“One of the best books in medicine I have read. A splendid, savage story about the failings of modern device regulation that reads like a mystery, not a work of medical non-fiction: It turns out to be both.”–Vinay Prasad, Assistant Professor ofMedicine, Oregon Health and Science University, and author of Ending MedicalReversal

Jeanne Lenzer is an award-winning medical investigative journalist and former Knight Science Journalism fellow. She is a longtime contributor to the The BMJ (formerly, the British Medical Journal), and her articles, reviews and commentary have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic, The New Republic, Discover, Slate, Mother Jones and many other outlets.

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