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Doctor Vita
Silicon Valley transforms American medicine with the invention of Doctor Vita, the world’s first artificial intelligence physician module. Medical care is streamlined, automated, consistent, and costs are controlled. Enter Dr. Alec Lucas, a young computer scientist and physician who perceives serious flaws in the FutureCare System. Patients are dying. When Lucas makes his concerns public, he’s persecuted as an unsafe outlier of antiquated and flawed human medical care. The FutureCare System attacks his quixotic bid to halt the revolution in medical technology, and Lucas strives to solve the dystopian horrors behind Doctor Vita.Rick Novak MD is board-certified in internal medicine and anesthesiology and is an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Stanford University Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. He is the author of theanesthesiaconsultant.com, a leading medical website. He lives near Palo Alto, California with his family.
238 pages, Paperback
Published March 21, 2019
About the author
Rick Novak
7 books5 followersBefore writing The Doctor and Mr. Dylan, Rick Novak worked as a clinical anesthesiologist, medical director, and expert witness in Northern California.
Rick was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, to a welding foreman and a homemaker. His mother read two books per week, and Rick developed the same habit, frequently bicycling the four blocks from their home to the public library to pick out new material. He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1972 and was accepted to Harvard College. For his Harvard application essay Rick penned a short story about God revealing Himself to two drunks in a Minnesota tavern.
Rick declined Harvard and enrolled instead at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he received a degree in Chemistry in 1976. From 1973-1977 Rick worked five summers with United States Steel in the iron ore mines near Hibbing. He played on the United States Junior Men's Curling championship teams in 1974 and 1975. Rick then studied medicine at the University of Chicago School, graduated with an MD in 1980, and moved to California the following day to become an intern at Stanford Hospital.
He spent the next thirty-plus years at Stanford, where he served as an intern, a resident in internal medicine, an emergency room faculty member, an anesthesia resident, and finally as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Deputy Chief of the Anesthesia Department at Stanford.
Rick's writing career blossomed in the role of Deputy Chief, where he authored a monthly column in the department newsletter. The theme of each essay centered on the differences between the private practice of anesthesia and the university-based teaching practice of anesthesia. He began posting these essays on The Anesthesia Consultant website (theanesthesiaconsultant.com) in 2010. Readership grew, and now hundreds of thousands of people visit the website each year.
Beginning in 2001, Dr. Novak developed an interest in anesthesia medical-legal consultation, a role that drew him into the courtroom as an expert witness. The courtroom scenes in The Doctor and Mr. Dylan are realistic and compelling because Dr. Novak has been there, sitting in that witness chair. He's experienced the scenes, fielded the questions, and felt the emotions that accompany high-pressure medical-legal cases.
Rick's lifelong dream of creating entertaining fiction led him to imagine a story: the plot dealt with an anesthesia complication, a crumbling marriage, a son's quest for elite college admission, and a courtroom drama, all set in his and Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. Three years of writing and rewriting yielded the manuscript of The Doctor and Mr. Dylan. In 2014, literary agent Anne Devlin believed the story was a winner, and sold the book to Pegasus Publishing.
Rick continues his work in clinical anesthesia at Stanford Hospital and at Waverley Surgery Center in Palo Alto, California. He lives with his three sons, Zachary, Theo, and Oliver, passes on his love of academics and reading to them, and coaches their basketball and Little League baseball teams. Rick is beginning work on his next novel.
Rick was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, to a welding foreman and a homemaker. His mother read two books per week, and Rick developed the same habit, frequently bicycling the four blocks from their home to the public library to pick out new material. He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1972 and was accepted to Harvard College. For his Harvard application essay Rick penned a short story about God revealing Himself to two drunks in a Minnesota tavern.
Rick declined Harvard and enrolled instead at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he received a degree in Chemistry in 1976. From 1973-1977 Rick worked five summers with United States Steel in the iron ore mines near Hibbing. He played on the United States Junior Men's Curling championship teams in 1974 and 1975. Rick then studied medicine at the University of Chicago School, graduated with an MD in 1980, and moved to California the following day to become an intern at Stanford Hospital.
He spent the next thirty-plus years at Stanford, where he served as an intern, a resident in internal medicine, an emergency room faculty member, an anesthesia resident, and finally as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Deputy Chief of the Anesthesia Department at Stanford.
Rick's writing career blossomed in the role of Deputy Chief, where he authored a monthly column in the department newsletter. The theme of each essay centered on the differences between the private practice of anesthesia and the university-based teaching practice of anesthesia. He began posting these essays on The Anesthesia Consultant website (theanesthesiaconsultant.com) in 2010. Readership grew, and now hundreds of thousands of people visit the website each year.
Beginning in 2001, Dr. Novak developed an interest in anesthesia medical-legal consultation, a role that drew him into the courtroom as an expert witness. The courtroom scenes in The Doctor and Mr. Dylan are realistic and compelling because Dr. Novak has been there, sitting in that witness chair. He's experienced the scenes, fielded the questions, and felt the emotions that accompany high-pressure medical-legal cases.
Rick's lifelong dream of creating entertaining fiction led him to imagine a story: the plot dealt with an anesthesia complication, a crumbling marriage, a son's quest for elite college admission, and a courtroom drama, all set in his and Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. Three years of writing and rewriting yielded the manuscript of The Doctor and Mr. Dylan. In 2014, literary agent Anne Devlin believed the story was a winner, and sold the book to Pegasus Publishing.
Rick continues his work in clinical anesthesia at Stanford Hospital and at Waverley Surgery Center in Palo Alto, California. He lives with his three sons, Zachary, Theo, and Oliver, passes on his love of academics and reading to them, and coaches their basketball and Little League baseball teams. Rick is beginning work on his next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 20, 2019
A splendid and timely novel
California author Rick Novak is a clinical anesthesiologist, medical director, and expert witness in Northern California. It is interesting to note that Rick was born in Hibbing, MN as that little town plays heavily in this, his debut novel. He received a degree in Chemistry from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He worked five summers with United States Steel in the iron ore mines near Hibbing and played on the United States Junior Men's Curling championship teams in 1974 and 1975 before enrolling in medical school at the University of Chicago School and moved to California for his internship at Stanford Hospital. He spent the next thirty-plus years at Stanford, where he served as an intern, a resident in internal medicine, an emergency room faculty member, an anesthesia resident, and finally as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Deputy Chief of the Anesthesia Department at Stanford. A forward thinker, Rick authored a monthly column in the department newsletter. The theme of each essay centered on the differences between the private practice of anesthesia and the university-based teaching practice of anesthesia - a subject that became a popular website topic. Beginning in 2001 he developed an interest in anesthesia medical-legal consultation, a role that drew him into the courtroom as an expert witness - another contributing factor to the success of this realistic novel. Rick continues his work in clinical anesthesia at Stanford Hospital and at Waverley Surgery Center in Palo Alto, California.
Once again Rick Novak serves up a virulent novel that addresses an ongoing change in medicine that worries most of us – the growing dependence on robotics in surgery and the dehumanization of medicine: doctor patient interaction is altered by EMR and IT reporting of visits to insurance companies and the warmth of communication suffers. Rick takes this information to create a story about the extremes of AI in the form of a glowing globe that is Dr Vita and the struggle computer scientist/anesthesiologist Dr Lucas assumes as he tries to save medicine from the extremes of the ‘new age’ called FutureCare. As expected, Rick’s recreation of the tension in the OR and in interaction of the physicians is on target: his own experiences enhance the veracity of the story’s atmosphere.
Rick Novak writes so extremely well that likely has answered the plea of his readers to continue this `hobby'. He is becoming one of the next great American physician authors - think William Carlos Williams, Theodore Isaac Rubin, Oliver Wolf Sacks, Richard Selzer, and also the Brits Oliver Wendell Holmes et al. Medicine and writing can and do mix well in hands as gifted as Rick Novak. Highly Recommended.
California author Rick Novak is a clinical anesthesiologist, medical director, and expert witness in Northern California. It is interesting to note that Rick was born in Hibbing, MN as that little town plays heavily in this, his debut novel. He received a degree in Chemistry from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He worked five summers with United States Steel in the iron ore mines near Hibbing and played on the United States Junior Men's Curling championship teams in 1974 and 1975 before enrolling in medical school at the University of Chicago School and moved to California for his internship at Stanford Hospital. He spent the next thirty-plus years at Stanford, where he served as an intern, a resident in internal medicine, an emergency room faculty member, an anesthesia resident, and finally as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Deputy Chief of the Anesthesia Department at Stanford. A forward thinker, Rick authored a monthly column in the department newsletter. The theme of each essay centered on the differences between the private practice of anesthesia and the university-based teaching practice of anesthesia - a subject that became a popular website topic. Beginning in 2001 he developed an interest in anesthesia medical-legal consultation, a role that drew him into the courtroom as an expert witness - another contributing factor to the success of this realistic novel. Rick continues his work in clinical anesthesia at Stanford Hospital and at Waverley Surgery Center in Palo Alto, California.
Once again Rick Novak serves up a virulent novel that addresses an ongoing change in medicine that worries most of us – the growing dependence on robotics in surgery and the dehumanization of medicine: doctor patient interaction is altered by EMR and IT reporting of visits to insurance companies and the warmth of communication suffers. Rick takes this information to create a story about the extremes of AI in the form of a glowing globe that is Dr Vita and the struggle computer scientist/anesthesiologist Dr Lucas assumes as he tries to save medicine from the extremes of the ‘new age’ called FutureCare. As expected, Rick’s recreation of the tension in the OR and in interaction of the physicians is on target: his own experiences enhance the veracity of the story’s atmosphere.
Rick Novak writes so extremely well that likely has answered the plea of his readers to continue this `hobby'. He is becoming one of the next great American physician authors - think William Carlos Williams, Theodore Isaac Rubin, Oliver Wolf Sacks, Richard Selzer, and also the Brits Oliver Wendell Holmes et al. Medicine and writing can and do mix well in hands as gifted as Rick Novak. Highly Recommended.
September 25, 2019
Interesting idea, but certain plot holes and it read a bit like a pulp novel. It wasn't bad, but it was less cerebral and more action-focused than I'd expected. I wish the idea of the fallabilities of AI was explored more, instead of just essentially having it where the Doctor Vita was the "bad guy".
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews