Context and Impact
The book takes place during the Watergate scandal, and follows such events as the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew and the stepping-down of Richard Nixon.
The book is very likely autobiographical, as the BMS is a thinly veiled Harvard Medical School (commonly called HMS), and The House of God representing the Beth Israel Hospital, now a part of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the HMS-affiliated hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts; "Man's Best Hospital" (MBH) represents Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). There are also references to a community hospital called Mt. St. Elsewhere or Mt. St. E.'s, which likely represents St. Elizabeth's Medical Center.
Some American doctors felt that The House of God resonated with their own experiences during their internship training. However, according to the author, many older physicians were offended by the work.
Many of the terms defined in this book (see glossary) have since become widely known and used in medical culture. It is difficult to say which came first, the book or the terms, but terms such as 'bounce' back and 'turf' are now in standard medical usage. Similarly, many of the concepts central to the book are now well accepted medical truisms. For example, since the 1970s "falls risks" has become a standard assessment for all patients and the notion that "gomers go to ground" is well established, if not always phrased in those terms.
Read more about this topic: The House Of God
Famous quotes containing the words context and, context and/or impact:
“Parents are led to believe that they must be consistent, that is, always respond to the same issue the same way. Consistency is good up to a point but your child also needs to understand context and subtlety . . . much of adult life is governed by context: what is appropriate in one setting is not appropriate in another; the way something is said may be more important than what is said. . . .”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)
“Parents are led to believe that they must be consistent, that is, always respond to the same issue the same way. Consistency is good up to a point but your child also needs to understand context and subtlety . . . much of adult life is governed by context: what is appropriate in one setting is not appropriate in another; the way something is said may be more important than what is said. . . .”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)