Herr Doktor Maurer's accounts of his life's work in healing are both humbling and uplifting. Maurer is a Virtue too ....

~ t.d.

Howard Spiro M.D. recently reviewed "Patients Are a Virtue" in the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine.

Maurer "writes about his patients with the skill of Richard Selzer: refreshingly enough, he finds in mundane occurrences, and in patients others might regard as banal, the poetry and pathos of life."

"Maurer has a gift for recording conversations. His stories flow smoothly and realistically, and they are compelling, at only three pages or so....This book gives brilliant witness to just that kind of humane medicine that attracts those who want to comfort as much as cure."

Interested readers can access the entire review at:
Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine

The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine acts as an online clearinghouse for manuscripts dealing with the humanities and medicine.

Just finished reading PAAV this week. I am not a health professional so the actual medical terminology held some challenges. But the stories were addicting, finishing one just made me want to read the next. It was almost like I was hearing the author himself.

D. R. Dymond
Lebanon, PA

Brian Maurer's riveting book, Patients are a Virtue, captivated me for many days. Indeed, I rationed it so that I would not finish it too quickly. These are poignant clinical tales distilled from almost 30 years of mindful practice. Whie every health care professional is exposed to similar stories, sadly only a few take the time to pen them. Each vignette here holds an important lesson for students, trainees, all health care professionals, patients and patients' families. PAAV would make a wonderful gift for any young person who is contemplating a career in the healing arts. It also serves to remind cynical old practioners such as AR Pito that we were once impressionable and hopeful. PAAV deserves the widest possible audience.
A.R. Pito
Cat's Cove
Norfolk Island, S.P.

The stories recorded on the pages of "Patients Are a Virtue" have been several years in the making. Some were written down within hours of the actual encounters; others were not recorded until years later. This latter fact testifies to the meaning of an epiphany—an awakening, a revelation steeped with an intensity not easily forgotten.

These tales can be read on several levels. First and foremost, I offer them as encounters typical in daily clinical practice. Sir William Osler, one of the 19th century’s leading proponents of humane medical practice, wrote: "Dealing as we do with poor suffering humanity, we see the man unmasked, exposed to all the frailties and weaknesses; and you have to keep your heart soft and tender, lest you develop too great a contempt for your fellow creatures." In moving through these tales, I hope that the general reader is able to sense that underlying tenderness as each story unfolds.

As illness narratives, these tales also serve to introduce the student to the art of medical practice. He or she can follow the clinician’s thought processes that lead to accurate assessments of the patient’s condition. A perceptive reader will find that, in some instances, try as the clinician might, he can offer only a listening ear or a gentle touch: many conditions have no cure otherwise. And the student will also witness those occasional failures of diagnosis; along with the clinician, he will learn to profit from these mistakes.

Finally, the stories themselves illustrate the healing process inherent in the clinician-patient relationship. As clinicians, our willingness to suffer with the patient through the act of compassion holds up this inherent hope.

Years ago I read that the best advice for an aspiring author is to write about what you know. I let it up to the reader himself to decide to what extent these tales measure up.



Brian T. Maurer
September 8, 2006