Mendel’s Garden Revisited

About the Book

Mendel’s Garden Revisited is a collection of medical essays spanning several years. Topics range from child abuse to prostate cancer, mosquito-borne diseases, and the tragedy of direct-to-consumer marketing. While most are straightforward descriptions of current medical conditions of interest, many explore the complex relationship of social determinants and health outcomes. Medical topics become outdated almost before they are printed. These articles are no exception. Although there has been a sincere attempt to report the most current data, that information changes almost daily. At best, this collection is a snapshot in time, perhaps more of interest to sociologists and historians than to doctors or medical students. Written for the lay public, it remains accessible to any reader.

About the Author

DR. DAVID J. HOLCOMBE was born in San Francisco, California in 1949 and raised in the East Bay. He attended the U. of California at Davis (BSA 1971) and went on to study at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the U. of Florida in Gainesville (MSA 1975). He subsequently attended the Catholic U. of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, where he received his M.D. Summa Cum Laude in 1981. Returning to the U.S. with his charming Belgian wife and the first of four sons, he completed a residency in internal medicine at a Johns-Hopkins affiliated clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. He and his family subsequently moved to Alexandria, Louisiana in 1986, where he worked 20 years as an internist with a busy multi-specialty clinic. Making a career shift, he assumed a regional position in public health in 2007. During his years of medical study and work, he continued to write, paint and folk dance, all very non-medical passions. He has self-published two volumes of short stories, four volumes of plays, one volume of medical articles (most of which previously appeared in two regional publications, CenLA Focus and Visible Horizon), and a hybrid publication of scientific articles and corresponding original plays (Public Health Onstage). Friends sometimes refer to him as the “Chekhov” on the Bayou.” Both he and his talented wife, Nicole, are committed to making Central Louisiana a better place through continuous social capital building.