The book depicts the stresses of a major academic cardiac surgery center quite well but you can also immediate tell how dated it is, particularly while reporting declining march rates for cardiac surgery a late 2000s to early 2010s phenomenon secondary to the rise of interventional cardiology as well as the hopes for off pump coronary artery bypass as a way of keeping over the costs of on pump cardiopulmonary bypass before later studies showed those off pump techniques came with their own complications.

The most striking though is the description of Dr. Oz as a serious scientist attempting to carefully analyze interventions like the mitraclip. I wonder what happened between then and now that he decided the adulation of the lay public from pitching fad solutions felt an acceptable trade-off to sacrifice the respect of his peers and colleagues. I suppose sometimes we'll never know what darkness may lurk in certain hearts.