Understanding Healthcare [Paperback]

Richard Saul Wurman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

Understanding your automobile and how to service and repair it is certainly useful.

Understanding your body and how to maintain and improve it is far more important.

Understanding Healthcare answers 100s of key questions and contains links to the best websites and other resources.

Understanding Healthcare is a visual encyclopedia -- each spread making the complex clear.

Understanding Healthcare takes the powerful tools of information architecture to create a roadmap for each reader.

Understanding Healthcare empowers each of us to constructively navigate through our own patterns of health information as well as those for whom we care.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Saul Wurman With the publication of his first book in 1962 at the age of 26, RSW began the singular passion of his life: that of making information understandable. In his best-selling book, Information Anxiety, in 1989, (and then again in 2000 with Information Anxiety2) he developed an overview of the motivating principles found in his previous works. Each of his 80 books focuses on some subject or idea that he personally had difficulty understanding. They all stem from his desire to know rather than from already knowing, from his ignorance rather than his intelligence, from his inability rather than his ability, making the complex clear.

Along the way, RSW has received both M. Arch. & B. Arch. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1959 he was graduated with the highest honors, awarded the Arthur Spayd Brookes Gold Medal. He established a deep personal & professional relationship with the architect Louis I. Kahn. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA).

He has been awarded several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Graham Fellowships & two Chandler Fellowships. In 1991, RSW received the Kevin Lynch Award from MIT for his creation of the ACCESS travel guides & was honored by a retrospective exhibition of his work at the AXIS Design Gallery in Tokyo, Japan on the occasion of their 10th Anniversary. He received the Chrysler Design Award, a Doctorate of Fine Arts by the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Art Center College of Design and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston.

He chaired the International Design in Aspen in 1972, the first Federal Design Assembly in 1973, followed by the National AIA Convention in 1976, before creating and chairing TED (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conferences from 1984-2002 and currently the TEDMED conferences.

He is married to novelist and lyricist Gloria Nagy. He has 4 children and 5 grandchildren. He lives in Newport, Rhode Island with Max & Abraham (their dogs).

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Top (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970368496
• ISBN-13: 978-0970368492
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #727,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book, August 18, 2005

By 

Muhammad Miguel Ali Hasan "Film Director & Po... (Sunset Beach, California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Understanding Healthcare (Paperback)

Healthcare is an industry full of misunderstanding, mostly because there are so many facets to it, and comprehending all of them is a challenge, in itself

Wurman's book is a terrific guide, mainly because he comprehensively describes every facet of healthcare, but the genius behind this book is the fact that every facet is described both in text and through picture

Wurman has gone at lengths to provide us with many illustrations, statistics, and charts/graphs to illustrate all of his biggest points, regarding the healthcare industry today ----- in turn, the book takes very complicated ideas, but presents them in ways that are easy to read, see, and learn

Overall, its the best reference book to healthcare that I have seen, outside of books that are stricly meant for doctors or administrators

highly recommended!

HAPPY READING!!!!!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tool for all doctor visits, February 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding Healthcare (Paperback)

Richard Wurman has provided a set of tools that will make a visit to the doctor better. Information is provided in an organized and useful manner, empowering patients to stay in control of their health care decision making. Everyone should take this book with them on each visit, ensuring that you will leave the office with improved health (and a health plan more focused on your needs).

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to look at, January 28, 2010

By 

Christine Quiriy (Littleton, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Understanding Healthcare (Paperback)

I think I bought this book because I read somewhere else that the layout, the organization and presentation of the information was novel, new, perhaps intuitive. I found it very difficult to look at for more than 15 seconds and never tried to "read" it for information. I consider myself a fairly visual learner, but this book was beyond me. Perhaps another would have a different experience.