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Matt McCarthy
Photo Credit: © Nina Subin

Matt McCarthy

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Matt McCarthy is the author of two US bestsellers, The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly and Odd Man Out. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell and a staff physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where he serves on the Ethics Committee. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Slate, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Deadspin. He reviews nonfiction for USA Today and is editor-in-chief of Current Fungal Infection Reports.

Books by Matt McCarthy

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly

After his professional baseball career failed to launch, Matt McCarthy went to Harvard Medical School and onto a coveted residency slot in New York. But when he almost lost a patient on his first day after making what he believed to be a terrible error, he found himself facing the harsh reality of a new doctor's life--one in which even overachievers find themselves humbled, and in which med school training has little to offer in navigating the emotional roller-coaster of dealing with actual patients. Luckily for McCarthy, his second-year-resident adviser (whom he calls "Baio," owing to a resemblance to Charles in Charge-era Scott Baio) was an offbeat genius with a knack for breaking down the complicated process of treating patients. But neither doctor could offer much help to a patient named Barney, who had been living in the hospital while waiting for a new heart, and with whom McCarthy slowly befriended over the course of the year in ways that changed his perception of what it means to be a physician.
     Mixing the tense drama of ER with the screwball humor of Scrubs, McCarthy offers a window into hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor: How do you learn how to save lives in a job where there is no practice? This One L for doctors will inspire and entertain physicians and patients alike.

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