{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0822353423?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0822353423","authors":["Julie Livingston"],"book_id":"9780822353423","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/improvising-medicine-9780822353423","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780822353423.jpg?v=84d1d960548a9936","description":"In Improvising Medicine , Julie Livingston tells the story of Botswana's only dedicated cancer ward, located in its capital city of Gaborone. This affecting ethnography follows patients, their relatives, and ward staff as a cancer epidemic emerged in Botswana. The epidemic is part of an ongoing surge in cancers across the global south; the stories of Botswana's oncology ward dramatize the human stakes and intellectual and institutional challenges of an epidemic that will shape the future of global health. They convey the contingencies of high-tech medicine in a hospital where vital machines are often broken, drugs go in and out of stock, and bed-space is always at a premium. They also reveal cancer as something that happens between people. Serious illness, care, pain, disfigurement, and even death emerge as deeply social experiences. Livingston describes the cancer ward in terms of the bureaucracy, vulnerability, power, biomedical science, mortality, and hope that shape contemporary experience in southern Africa. Her ethnography is a profound reflection on the social orchestration of hope and futility in an African hospital, the politics and economics of healthcare in Africa, and palliation and disfigurement across the global south.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780822353423","publication_date":"20120829","publisher":"Duke University Press","slug":"improvising-medicine","subtitle":"An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic","title":"Improvising Medicine"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"MED022020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"HIV & AIDS","score":0.7505,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"MED022090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.7319,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"MED022020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"HIV & AIDS","score":0.7505,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"MED022090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.7319,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Southern African History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED078000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Public Health","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"How Cultures Work","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"HIV & AIDS","score":0.7505,"slug":"hiv-aids"},{"label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.7319,"slug":"infectious-diseases"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in ethnographies of cancer care in Botswana","Good for readers interested in healthcare politics and economics in Africa"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Johanna Tayloe Crane"],"book_id":"9780801479175","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780801479175.jpg?v=2d9e3051814e8852","score":0.7084,"title":"Scrambling for Africa","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780801479175"},{"authors":["Dominik Mattes"],"book_id":"9781805391210","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781805391210.jpg?v=a233617f1b7b68b2","score":0.6991,"title":"Fierce Medicines, Fragile Socialities","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781805391210"},{"authors":["Nicole Itano"],"book_id":"9781416552918","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781416552918.jpg?v=f6a90b3d0e10046d","score":0.6943,"title":"No Place Left to Bury the Dead","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781416552918"},{"authors":["Tony Bartelme"],"book_id":"9780807005866","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807005866.jpg?v=98ad02f20e5bd72a","score":0.683,"title":"A Surgeon in the Village","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807005866"},{"authors":["Alyson O'Daniel"],"book_id":"9780803269613","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780803269613.jpg?v=9339ea2a0e284a08","score":0.6782,"title":"Holding on","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780803269613"},{"authors":["Dr. Ross Donaldson"],"book_id":"9780312377014","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780312377014.jpg?v=12ea39e1ebaab5fa","score":0.6681,"title":"The Lassa Ward","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780312377014"},{"authors":["Paul Farmer"],"book_id":"9781250800237","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250800237.jpg?v=1398cab001ae879e","score":0.6678,"title":"Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250800237"},{"authors":["Jonny Steinberg"],"book_id":"9781416552703","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781416552703.jpg?v=b392b98554e76afd","score":0.6621,"title":"Sizwe's Test","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781416552703"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Illness and care as social experiences, Healthcare politics in Africa, Hope and futility in hospital care.","Pacing: reflective, voice-and-character forward.","Reading lane: Hiv & Aids and Infectious Diseases."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"reflective","reader_fit":["Readers interested in ethnographies of cancer care in Botswana","Readers interested in healthcare politics and economics in Africa"],"themes":["Illness and care as social experiences","Healthcare politics in Africa","Hope and futility in hospital care"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":60,"goodreads_ratings_count":385,"goodreads_reviews_count":30,"quality_score":0.8978}}