“For anyone who has faced an extended period of not knowing what ails them, diagnostic uncertainty can be profoundly frustrating. We look to medicine for answers, yet even as scientific and clinical progress is made, certainty eludes. Challenging Diagnosis is among the rare histories to confront this double bind. LaBonte treats the history of cystic fibrosis as an eighty-year diagnostic odyssey that has bred as much uncertainty and frustration as it has resolved. Juxtaposed with LaBonte’s own decades-long journey with an uncertain diagnosis, these well-told histories become bounty for reflecting on the potency and limits of biomedicine. After Challenging Diagnosis, physicians and patients might do well to recalibrate their expectations; something far more valuable than certainty lies in this journey.”

Stephen Pemberton, author of “The Bleeding Disease: Hemophilia and the Unintended Consequences of Medical Progress”

“Challenging Diagnosis explores the meaning, scope, and ramifications of diagnostic uncertainty in the US today. In LaBonte’s careful analysis, CF becomes a case study of biomedical failure to research and explain disease prognosis and to adequately respond to the dilemmas created by screening and testing. She illuminates the individual experience of disease and uncertainty, especially people whose suffering remains undiagnosed and untreated and others who carry genetic variants that are not yet the target of medical breakthroughs. LaBonte uses her own experiences with diagnostic uncertainty and complexity to frame this well-written and accessible book. Challenging Diagnosis calls for more research into individual variation and prognosis, more individualized care, and less stigma surrounding symptoms that resist current medical explanation.”

Robert Aronowitz, author of “Risky Medicine: Our Quest to Cure Fear and Uncertainty”

“This engaging book explores the fascinating history of cystic fibrosis. LaBonte uses that history to illustrate an important understanding of the history of medicine—despite the nearly continuous introduction of marvelous new technology into health care, diagnosis and treatment will continue to be fraught with uncertainty.”

Joel Howell, author of “Technology in the Hospital: Transforming Patient Care in the Early Twentieth Century”