The Best Books, Blogs and Podcasts for Healthcare Professionals

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Healthcare professionals have more tools than ever at their disposal thanks to the Digital Era, but many of these busy experts are struggling with information overload. How are you supposed to narrow down the premium blogs, top-of-the-line podcasts worth a listen or the best books for healthcare professionals?

You don’t have the time to wade through all of those options, but there’s good news — we’ve done the hard work for you. Check out these top six picks designed as “infotainment” just for medical professionals like you:

• Book — America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System by Steven Brill. This New York Times bestseller and notable book tackles the Affordable Care Act via fly-on-the-wall accounts. If you want to delve deeper into the biggest and arguably most dysfunctional industry in the country as it gears up for yet another overhaul, you have to catch up with Brill’s book. It’s especially insightful for those in the industry.

• Book — The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid. Also a bestseller, complicated issues are explained plainly while remaining engaging. Reid compares similar healthcare systems around the world, including France and Japan, for a well-rounded perspective of what it takes for an affordable universal health care system. It’s a must for those in the industry looking to expand their views.

• Blog — Harvard Health Blog: Health Information and Medical Information. If you want to keep up to date on the latest research, information and happenings, this reputable source will keep you engaged while allowing you to cite credible statistics with ease. About five new blogs are posted each week, and with over 11,000 Harvard medical doctors providing insight, there’s never any shortage of material. 

• Blog — Health Affairs. As one of the leading health policy journals with a solid peer-review process in place, this blog takes on everything from health, policy and health care. It’s designed as a nonpartisan yet high-level space with a strong basis in analysis. Here, discussions on health care access, cost and quality take place.

• Podcast — NPR’s Shots: Health News. NPR is the go-to podcast forum for all your other news, so why not get your “shots” there too? Their health news blog usually gets new additions throughout the day, and you can filter by health-specific categories like Your Health, Treatment and Tests, Health, Inc., Policy-ish, or Public Health. NPR is also Amazon Home friendly, so just tell Alexa to “play NPR.”

• Podcast — BMJ’s Talk Medicine. The British Medical Journal’s popular podcast is available on SoundCloud and confronts a range of healthcare issues such as: What is high integrity healthcare?, Emergency care plans at the end of life, and American Healthcare: what next? One or two new podcasts are released every week, and there’s a rich archive to sift through if you’re not already an active listener.

With these six options, you can tap into whatever mood you’re feeling, whether you want to snuggle in with a good book on your public transportation commute, listen to a podcast on your morning run or scroll through blogs as you’re waiting in line for coffee. Whether you’re after bite-sized nuggets of information, prefer multi-tasking via listening or are committed to reading more books, prioritizing a deeper understanding of your industry is one of the best ways to stay engaged.

As we roll into spring, it’s time to re-commit to your profession and industry. Revitalizing what you’re passionate about promises a trickle-down effect that will positively impact your colleagues and patients!

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