Robert Brian "Robin" Cook is an American physician and novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for combining medical writing with the thriller genre. Many of his books have been bestsellers on The New York Times Best Seller List. Several of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. His books have sold nearly 400 million copies worldwide.
To date Robin Cook has written a total of thirty-three worldwide bestsellers. Most all of Dr. Cook's books have been written to elucidate various medical/biotech ethical and public policy issues. From his first novel on, it had been Dr. Cook's intention to use entertainment as a method of doing this. The issues have included the supply of organs for transplantation (Coma), stem cells and egg donation (Shock), the collision of politics and bioscience regarding therapeutic cloning (Seizure), food poisoning (Toxin), bio-terrorism (Vector), xeno-transplantation (Chromosome 6), managed care (Fatal Cure), the impact of the decipherment of the human genome on the economics and sociology of medicine (Marker), medical nanotechnology (Nano), and the digitalization of medicine (Cell) to name a few. Cell is Dr. Cook's most recently published book (February 2014). In October 2015 his thirty-fourth novel, Host, will be released. Host deals with malfeasance in the pharmaceutical and hospital industries.
"I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in it. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." He explained the popularity of his works thus: "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're not going to go into a hospital." - Robin Cook
www.robincook.com
He is best known for combining medical writing with the thriller genre. Many of his books have been bestsellers on The New York Times Best Seller List. Several of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. His books have sold nearly 400 million copies worldwide.
To date Robin Cook has written a total of thirty-three worldwide bestsellers. Most all of Dr. Cook's books have been written to elucidate various medical/biotech ethical and public policy issues. From his first novel on, it had been Dr. Cook's intention to use entertainment as a method of doing this. The issues have included the supply of organs for transplantation (Coma), stem cells and egg donation (Shock), the collision of politics and bioscience regarding therapeutic cloning (Seizure), food poisoning (Toxin), bio-terrorism (Vector), xeno-transplantation (Chromosome 6), managed care (Fatal Cure), the impact of the decipherment of the human genome on the economics and sociology of medicine (Marker), medical nanotechnology (Nano), and the digitalization of medicine (Cell) to name a few. Cell is Dr. Cook's most recently published book (February 2014). In October 2015 his thirty-fourth novel, Host, will be released. Host deals with malfeasance in the pharmaceutical and hospital industries.
"I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in it. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." He explained the popularity of his works thus: "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're not going to go into a hospital." - Robin Cook
www.robincook.com