This book is not a simple list of scientific discoveries ó however worthy that would be in its own right ó but rather an explanation of all types of things which have improved human health, from the development of sewerage systems to patient advocacy and flashier modern scientific discoveries. It includes clear, well-researched entries from the latter category, such as blood transfusion, chemotherapy and stem cells. However, the authors are concerned with the whole person and universal access to good health-care, not just science.

A few years before writing the book, Eugene Straus suffered a stroke, which paralysed his right side, and then a poisonous spider-bite on his left hand required 10 operations and immobilised his left arm. He writes: "For a physician, there can be nothing more instructive than a near-fatal illness that brings him to medical and surgical wards, intensive care units, radiology departments, waiting in halls on a gurney, and lying in bed at 4 am having to urinate but unable to ring for a nurse."

Among much interesting and informative medical and scientific detail, the authors campaign for more money to be spent on cost-effective health infrastructure, including increased funding for hospitals, nurses, methadone programs and mental health. Their reports on the work of health pioneers like Florence Nightingale and Louis Pasteur are lively and often scathing about the tendency of people in power to rely on received (incorrect) wisdom rather than welcoming important new truths.