Overview

Written in Blood is an urgent exploration of how disasters happen and how they can be prevented. Award-winning author and physician Brodie Ramin, trained in prevention through his work in primary care and addiction, explores how we can scale up preventative strategies and apply them at a societal level: from the wreckage of plane crashes and pandemics to nuclear catastrophes, industrial accidents, and natural disasters. Through gripping case studies from the Notre Dame fire to Fukushima Ramin dissects the human errors, systemic failures, and overlooked warning signs that lead to catastrophe. At its core, the book argues that prevention is not only possible but essential we must act before disaster strikes, rather than learning only in its aftermath. Drawing on frameworks like James Reason's Swiss cheese model of error and insights from high-reliability organizations, Ramin shows how risk compounds when safeguards fail and how layered defenses can save lives. He offers a critical intervention: by adopting a prevention mindset and overcoming our cognitive biases, we can proactively solve problems in our personal lives, our organizations, and our society, before the next crisis unfolds. Blending history, psychology, and public policy, Written in Blood is a compelling call to rethink how we manage risk, before it's too late.

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9781487569051

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Written in Blood explores how we anticipate disaster—from pandemics to nuclear war—revealing how risk is assessed and disaster imagined. It offers a clear, incisive account of the systems, assumptions, and politics that shape preparedness and the choices made long before a crisis begins.” -- Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health, and Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Washington University in St. Louis “A very interesting and important book. Written in Blood presents serious ideas in an accessible style. The detailed examples are useful for engaging the reader in the widespread importance of the concept, as well as what paths forward might look like. The implications of the work, an approach to preventing massive loss of life, should be of interest to everyone.” -- David Rehkopf, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University “With compelling narratives and illustrative analyses, Written in Blood is a useful primer on disaster prevention. It is organized in a fashion that is understandable to multiple levels of readership, therefore suitable for students as well as for individuals and organizations working or interested in community emergency preparedness. It has a broader reach than other similar texts and is an important contribution to the body of knowledge on risk management. The book has the potential to ultimately influence policy, prioritizing pro-active prevention and mitigation rather than reacting after the fact and preparing for the last (rather than the next) disaster.” -- Brian Schwartz, Professor, Clinical Public Health Division, University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Author Information

Dr. Brodie Ramin practices family medicine, HIV primary care, and addiction medicine, and is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. He speaks and teaches on addiction medicine, exercise and health, and prevention science. His book The Age of Fentanyl was shortlisted for the Donner Prize.

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