Moving Mountains

A Socratic Challenge to the Theory and Practice of Population Medicine

Medicine has become increasingly depersonalized. Patients complain of being treated like numbers. Doctors resent being cogs in a complex healthcare system. Yet enthusiasm remains within the high towers of academia, the halls of government, and the corporate boardrooms of insurance companies, for a new medical field known as “population medicine.” Population medicine seeks to improve “population health” and presents an ambitious program founded on elaborate theories developed over the last few decades.

Moving Mountains provides a highly entertaining critical examination of the theory and practice of population medicine. Author Michel Accad, MD, masterfully immerses the reader in an imaginary but academically rigorous dialogue between the philosopher Socrates and Dr. Geoffrey Rose, one of the major architects of population medicine. This stimulating intellectual joust, which questions the value and wisdom of “shifting” population curves, provides the reader with unique insights regarding key historical and theoretical developments that rarely receive attention in mainstream medical journals. This book will be of great interest to any reader concerned about healthcare. It will be of particular appeal to medical and public health students, as well as to healthcare professionals, including academics open to a challenging perspective.