American health care is expensive, inefficient, delivered inequitably, and often ignores the basic needs of patients and families. As our population ages, millions of Americans are living longer with serious illness, but are served by a medical system that prioritizes expensive and often unnecessary procedures, often at the expense of patient quality of life. During the current debate over health care policy, QUALITY OF LIFE: PALLIATIVE CARE AND THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE presents stories of medical practitioners fundamentally rethinking how we can approach health care. Through intimate portraits of doctors and patients in the nascent field of palliative medicine, it offers a vision of care built around supporting the needs and wishes of patients and their families. Combining emotionally engaging personal stories with an intellectually complex discussion of the current crisis in health care, it will help prompt necessary dialogue about the very nature of American medicine.