The Elusive Body
Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis

Quotes

Praise for The Elusive Body

“Diagnosis requires recognition—the willingness to say: I believe your body is telling us something, even if I don’t know what it is. The crisis that Sifferlin documents—and that I’ve experienced as a patient—is that the system has made this act of witness, a foundational act of thousands of years of medicine, exceedingly difficult to perform. The Elusive Body shows that it doesn’t have to be this way: The solutions are around us, and all that they require is a new orientation toward uncertainty, attention, and time—as well as the political will to solve the problem.”
—Meghan O’Rourke, The Atlantic

“A journalist charts the brave new world of undiagnosed diseases and the researchers and physicians who rally to their patients’ care. Through a series of case histories that unfold like mystery investigations . . . Sifferlin calls out ‘the diagnosis crisis,’ probing all-too-common human errors, the mortifying flaws in how we train our clinicians, and the allure of genomic medicine.”
—Time, “One of 10 Books to Read in March”

“Each year, around twelve million people in the U.S. experience a medical diagnostic error; some three million live with diseases that remain undiagnosed even after exhaustive medical investigation. Sifferlin’s book examines the roots of this situation, and explores avenues for addressing it.”
—The New Yorker

“The Elusive Body artfully melds modern medical science with timeless narratives of people struggling for answers to mysterious maladies. Alexandra Sifferlin educates the mind and pulls at the heart as she explores the far reaches of clinical diagnosis.”
—Jerome Groopman MD, Recanati Professor Harvard University, New York Times bestselling author of How Doctors Think

“The Elusive Body gives us a series of medical detective stories, each both painful and intriguing. It also examines the forces within the American medical system that make such stories painful, that all too often impede timely and accurate diagnoses. I found Ms. Sifferlin’s book entertaining, enlightening, and in addition timely—a book mindful of science in this era when crackpot notions about public health and medicine are routinely issued from on high.”
—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains

“Diagnosis, the crux of medicine, is all too often mistaken, uncertain, or not possible. In The Elusive Body, Sifferlin, masterfully illuminates the reasons for these failures, with their profound adverse health implications, and how we can markedly improve in the future.”
—Eric Topol, MD, author of Super Agers, Professor and EVP, Scripps Research

“Medical diagnosis, like science itself, is not a factual report but a human process, demanding keen observation, percipience, and imagination. And the stakes can be mortal. Alexandra Sifferlin’s small, calm book on this large, crucial subject is full of mystery and illumination.”
—David Quammen, New York Times bestselling author of Spillover

“Diagnostic errors harm millions of patients each year yet remain medicine's most intractable problem. Sifferlin cuts through the complexity to show us why we get diagnoses wrong, why that matters, and—most importantly—how we can do better. The Elusive Body is a vital contribution.”
—Robert Wachter, MD, chair, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and New York Times bestselling author of The Digital Doctor and A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future

“In The Elusive Body, Alexandra Sifferlin turns ‘diagnostic odysseys’ into a riveting narrative journey. Drawing on intimate patient stories, cutting-edge research, and years of covering medicine’s front lines, she shows why getting a diagnosis is so hard, and what a more humane, responsive system could look like. Essential reading for anyone who has felt unseen in a doctor’s office — and for the clinicians, educators, and policymakers who want to do better.”
—Bryan Walsh, author of End Times