Kate Scannell is a physician and author who lives, writes, and gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is finally enjoying the focused time she’s promised herself to write the m...view moreKate Scannell is a physician and author who lives, writes, and gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is finally enjoying the focused time she’s promised herself to write the medical mysteries she's longed to tell. Immortal Wounds—the first in her series involving crack internist Dr. Nora Kelly and colleagues at Oakland City Hospital—was published in September, 2018.
Kate has published extensively in both lay and professional venues. She was a regular opinion columnist (2000-2014) for several Bay Area newspapers and their digital outlets, including The Oakland Tribune and The Contra Costa Times. Her columns explored the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of modern medicine and health care.
In 1999, she published her memoir Death of the Good Doctor—Lessons from the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic (Cleis Press). The book relates her experiences serving as the medical director for one of the country's first hospital AIDS wards during the early HIV epidemic years (1985-1990) when most patients suffered quick deaths. Her memoir also recounts her coming-of-age as a woman physician during this unique time. After her book went out of print, she acquired its rights and published it in digital (2010) and book (2012) formats.
In the interim, Kate published Flood Stage—A Novel, a collection of twenty interrelated stories about people living in a diverse rural community whose lives are threatened when torrential rains overfill the local river. When flood stage arrives and apocalyptic flooding ensues, residents of this tight-knit community must make swift and painful decisions. Do they stay or flee? What do they choose to carry away, what do they leave behind? In moments of urgent reckoning, their unique personal histories are acted out on center stage as a universal human drama unfolds.
Though taking early leave of her medical career, Kate loved medicine and patient care. She was board certified in Internal Medicine; Rheumatology; Geriatrics; and, Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She intends to stay close to these interests through her future writing.
She invites you to visit her website at: www.katescannellmd.comview less