Today we face the painful reality of the prevalence of chronic, rather than acute, diseases. The technologies developed to manager long-term, incurable illnesses have radically and irrevocably altered the organizational structure of health care, presenting us with a frequently bewildering array of medical specialties. Social Organization of Medical Work offers essential insight into this new era of health care.

Through richly documented, often gripping case studies, Anselm Strauss and his co-authors show us exactly how health workers are confronting the problems created...