The Serpent on the Staff : The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association 

by Howard Wolinsky, Tom Brune

From Booklist
Chicago newsmen Wolinsky and Brune document well the major political activities of what they call the "American Doctors Association" in support of its own financial and organizational health. The AMA, they claim, is more interested in doctors' salaries and privileges than in the care of patients. Doctors' ownership or interests in laboratories, diagnostic facilities, pharmacies, and other health-related work have drawn them away from their profession and into business. Battles against other medical groups, such as those for homeopathy and chiropractic, also have been carried on for financial reasons rather than for the improvement of care. Besides presenting their case, Wolinsky and Brune etch good characterizations of the major AMA spokespersons over the years. The product of many interviews, thorough grounding in the literature, and knowledge of important, leaked internal reports, their book is a contribution to both health-care history and the current health-care reform debate. William Beatty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Wall Street Journal.
"The Serpent on the Staff is a valuable starting point for readers who want an unflinching look at the AMA."

William Rial, MD, former AMA president.
"A wake-up call for 'physicians caring for America' who also care about their AMA and its public image."

The Nation
"An admirably acerbic appraisal og the AMA."

Book Description
A critical look at the American Medical Association, the nation's largest doctors' group.

About the Author
Wolinsky has covered the AMA for the Chicago Sun Times since 1981. He and Brune did a series of articles that led to resignation of the AMA's top executives.

Truth is stranger than fiction February 14, 2000
Reviewer: David A. Rivera, MD (see more about me) from Lombard, Illinois
This is a critical and often hilarious look at a stodgy organization that I believe has outlived its usefulness, whatever that might have been. From a former head several decades ago who became a consultant for the tobacco industry, to the Wilk's suit (aided by the Scientologists?), the book chronicles the many missteps the AMA has made long before the Sunbeam debacle. The current AMA leadership would do well to read this, and see how the outside world views what was once known as "The Doctor's Union."

Reviewer: A reader from Texas
For too long, the AMA has been able to offer itself as "dedicated to the health of America," with no dissenting voice to be heard. But with this hard-hitting expose, Wolinsky and Brune show the hollowness of that claim. In meticulously cited chapter after chapter, they build up convincing evidence that the American Medical Association is dedicated foremost to the health and wealth of doctors. With examples of the AMA's tacit support of Big Tobacco in the 1960s and 70s, its unwavering opposition to Medicare in the 1960s, and its massive lobbying operations in Washington, among others, an inescapable conclusion is reached: The AMA can be hazardous to America's health.

Reviewer: A reader
"The Serpent on the Staff' opens another window on the way interest groups work in Washington, and that always brings a welcome breeze." Washington Monthly. "An unflinching look at the AMA."Wall Street Journal  readers...will come away more savvy health consumers." New York Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reviewer: A reader
This book--which I co-authored and so didn't rate--takes a critical look at a group that has affected our health-delivery system. It is not necessarily the kindly Dr. Welby that some imagine. It is a physician-first organization that often puts doctors' pocketbooks ahead of the public interest and health. For example, the AMA for many years accepted money from the tobacco industry, thereby giving the industry cover during those critical years after the 1964 Surgeon General's report on the hazards of smoking. The book was favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, Chicago Tribune, New England Journal of Medicine, The Nation. People interested in alternative healing, such as chiropractors and their patients, and other groups critical of organized medicine have bought this book by the thousands in hardcover. Now it is available in a paperback. Howard Wolinsky (co-author with Tom Brune), "The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the AMA."