Through this book readers will see inside the system that trains doctors. In particular, cancer patients need to realize there's a human behind the white coat who should be their partner in treatment. That we have different skill sets and varying approaches.

Over my career I've come to realize people need to understand that their doctors are people who have known strife, hardship, challenges. It's treated by 'men in white coats' which most people know only as fairly anonymous health providers. Kennedy says, 'Cancer currently strikes one in two men, and one and three women. His success in medical school, and subsequent work as an instructor, scientist, medical researcher, and medical oncologist was the fulfillment of the American Dream.ĭr. His transition to Minnesota athlete, leader, and outdoorsman during high school, and his acceptance at Harvard where he graduated with honors, was nothing less than miraculous. The son of an Irish immigrant and a Jewish mother, both suffering from chemical dependencies, Kennedy grew up sickly in a tough Connecticut neighborhood. Yet Kennedy survived, enduring multiple surgeries and going on to become a successful oncologist and medical researcher in the Los Angeles area. Born premature with serious kidney defects, he seemed like a lost cause.

Kennedy describes his journey in medicine in his a medical memoir MEDICINE MAN: The Making of a Cancer Doctor. Peter Kennedy, cum laude graduate of Harvard University and graduate with highest honors of Baylor Medical School, was formerly head of the Metropolitan Oncology Medical Group in Los Angeles.

Medicine Man by Peter Kennedy