About the Author

Investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin is the author of Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife, published by HarperCollins in 2007. Her new book about the back pain industry, Crooked, will be published in April 2017. She's written for many national magazines on topics that include healthcare, neuroscience, business, public policy, travel, art, design and culture. A popular speaker, these days, she's booking lectures that enlighten patients, health care practitioners, corporations and medical facilities about how to manage back pain. Cathryn is married to Ron Ramin, a music composer. They have two adult sons, Avery and Oliver, and a Jack Russell-Daschundt mix dog named Dasch, after the punctuation mark, which he resembles. She divides her time between Northern California and New York City. Facebook: http://bit.ly/fbcrooked . Twitter: @cjramin

Reviews

"...[A] well-researched and fascinating read detailing the heart-wrenching experience so common to millions of back pain sufferers. Ramin exposes the devastating financial and emotional cost of back pain...Ultimately, her in-depth research lights the way to a better path for healing." -- Miranda Esmonde-White, New York Times bestselling author of Forever Painless "...Ramin offers a thoughtful and heartfelt way ... to treat one of humankind's most debilitating disorders-chronic back pain. A remarkable guide from someone who unfortunately had to make the journey, and found her way out." -- Paul A. Offit, MD, author of Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong "I see back pain patients who have undergone invasive procedures before they go through evidence-based rehabilitation. In a most engaging way, Cathryn Jakobson Ramin tells it like it is. Whether you're a patient, a physician, or a public policy wonk, you should read this book." -- VIJAY VAD, MD, sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and author of Back RX "...Ramin has written a riveting and disturbing account of a sector of American medicine that's gone very wrong... Politics, science, history-it's all in there, along with concrete advice for fellow sufferers. Policymakers can learn from this book, and patients can, too." -- Jonathan Cohn, author of The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis and The People Who Pay the Price "[A] thoroughly reported first-person take on the back-pain industry ... Buyer beware! This cautionary book ends on a high note with the once-hobbled-by-back-pain author standing up straight and hiking a 13,000-foot trail in the Peruvian Andes." -- Booklist