Life & Times Books 3. Pereira Gray D, Sidaway-Lee K, White E,et al. A Woman of Firsts. The Midwife Who woman working was highly frowned upon. Continuity of care with doctors: a systematic Built A Hospital And Changed The World Her journey runs parallel to that review of continuity of care and mortality.BMJ Edna Adan Ismail of her homeland, which after gaining 8: Open 2018; e021161. Harper Collins, 2020, PB, 336pp, £9.99, independence from Britain in 1960, 4. Baker R, Freeman G, Haggerty JL,et al. 978-0008305383 quickly joins with Italian Somalia. Edna Primary medical care continuity and patient mortality a systematic review. Br J Gen marries Mohamed Egal who becomes Pract 2020; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/ prime minister of Somalia, and soon she bjgp20X712289 is attending state visits as the First Lady. 5. Barker I, Steventon A, Deeny SR. Association A coup ensues, and life in Somaliland between continuity of care in general practice becomes very difficult as civil war takes and hospital admissions for ambulatory care hold. sensitive conditions: cross sectional study of routinely collected, person level data. BMJ Edna begins working for the World 2017; 356: j84 Health Organization, and spends decades 6. De Maeseneer JM, De Prins L, Gosset C, helping to raise awareness of FGM (she Heyerick J. Provider continuity in family even helped coin the term). Her dream medicine: does it make a difference for total to build a hospital in her country remains health care costs? Ann Fam Med 2003; 1(3): forever present, despite several setbacks 144–148. AN UPLIFTING LIFE along the way. 7. Del Canale S, Louis DZ, Maio V,et al. The This is a fascinating autobiographical relationship between physician empathy and account of Edna Adan Ismail, a midwife The book is an enthralling and inspirational disease complications: an empirical study from the East African nation of Somaliland. account of how one woman manages to of primary care physicians and their diabetic Edna was born in 1937 in Hargeisa, then improve patient care in Somaliland, and patients in Parma, Italy. Acad Med 2012; 87(9): raise the profile of women’s health. 1243–1249. part of British Somaliland. Daughter of an esteemed doctor, she spent much of her Edna is a feminist, activist, reluctant 8. Dambha-Miller H, Feldman AL, Kinmonth politician, teacher, and brilliant midwife, AL, Griffin SJ. Association between primary childhood helping her father out on the care practitioner empathy and risk of wards and quickly developed his passion for whose passion for medicine cannot fail to cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality medicine and improving health care in her galvanise readers. among patients with type 2 diabetes: a country. Her father was a true vocational population-based prospective cohort study. Sophie Rowlands, Ann Fam Med 2019; 1(4): 311–318. medic, for whom patients came above all GP, Coachmans Medical Practice, West Sussex; 9. Irving G, Neves AL, Dambha-Miller H,et else. Edna reflects that after three failed Education and Training Team, Royal College al. International variations in primary care marriages, her true partner is also the of General Practitioners Junior International physician consultation time: a systematic hospital. Committee. Email: [email protected] review of 67 countries. BMJ Open 2017; 7(10): Following a harrowing experience of e017902. @DrSRowlands female genital mutilation (FGM) as an 10. Orton PK, Pereira Gray D. Factors influencing 8-year-old, Edna goes on to study nursing consultation length in general/family practice. Fam Pract 2016; 33(5): 529–534. and then midwifery in London in the 1950s, 11. Han S, Shanafelt TD, Sinsky CA,et al. with vivid descriptions of her time on the Estimating the attributable cost of physician wards and in the capital. She returns to burnout in the United States. Ann Int Med Somaliland at her father’s request, and 2019; 170(11): 784–790. begins work as a midwife, at a time when a DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X713309 British Journal of General Practice, December 2020 597.