Since the appearance of WaitzkinOs The Second Sickness, a landmark book of the 1980s, American medicine has been dramatically transformed. WaitzkinOs earlier edition used qualitative research to take readers inside the Oblack boxO of medical decisionmaking. This new, fully updated and expanded edition retains the earlier edition's vivid approach and adds timely analysis of how managed care and other economic and social forces influence medical practice today.

Howard Waitzkin is Professor and Director, Division of Community Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of New Mexico.