At first it seems contradictory. A trial lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice suits writes a book about finding the best medical care. Author Pat Malone, however, has spent years finding out how the health care system can hurt patients. He knows where the pitfalls are in modern American medicine, and has written a book to help patients navigate around them.

Malone is an attorney in Washington, D.C., and a part-time resident of Tesuque. In The Life You Save, he describes some of the most frightening medical mistakes he has encountered in 25 years of pursuing malpractice suits. His book is devoted to showing people how to get the best outcome from their encounters with doctors and hospitals.

Successful patients, he writes, "learn that the best way to win the longest, healthiest lives for themselves is to take charge of their own health care and not merely turn their bodies over to an impersonal and broken medical industry."

In a telephone interview from Washington, Malone explained how many patients allow an authority figure to manage their health. They don't try to understand the details and consequences of their illness. "But you really are better off with the knowledge. It's not that you are on a collision course with death. You can divert it or slow it down."

He said his most important piece of advice is for people to obtain and read all their own medical records. Practitioners can misfile paperwork. Handoff errors are a danger, he said, "the ball gets fumbled when cases are handed from one provider to the next." Inconclusive medical tests can be misinterpreted.

Asking for medical records breaks the taboo that doctors are mysterious and removed from us.

Malone said his next important piece of advice is to ask a doctor after a diagnosis: "What else could it be?" People have evolved to follow authority figures. The irrational part of the brain that tells them to curl up under the blankets and put complete trust in an expert is much stronger than the rational part of the brain that tells them to become informed about their own health.

In the months since publication, Malone appeared on the Today show to discuss it. He said he received compliments from friends on his interview. Some told him he didn't seem like the cliché trial lawyer, and they thought that was a good thing.

The Life You Save describes several of his malpractice cases, including one where the recommendation of a dermatologist to have further tests on a mole was misfiled and lost by the general practitioner, leading to the patient's death from melanoma.

The book also contains many positive stories, at the urging of Malone's publisher. "At first I resisted," he said. "I'm in the tragedy business. But then I asked around with people I knew and found wonderful, heartwarming stories."

He writes how one woman found she was misdiagnosed with a rare form of cancer, avoided chemotherapy, and went on to become a patient advocate.

In his book, Malone explains how to find the best primary doctor, how to ask the right questions and how to insist on second opinions.

The right doctor, he said, has "great listening skills and empathy, works with a good hospital and has acceptable waiting times in the office."

Malone ought to have a positive attitude about doctors. His son is a third-year medical student at Tulane University in Louisiana and spent spring break ministering to earthquake victims in Haiti. "He gets a little defensive about his dad. A lot of doctors hate lawyers. They don't understand the good we do."

In a piece for the online Huffington Post, Malone wrote that lawsuits expose "incompetence and flawed system structures," contributing to safety reforms.

He is disappointed in parts of the recently passed health care legislation: "It is disheartening for me as a patient safety advocate that the message how to make it safer was drowned out by coverage and financial issues." Health care is "catch as catch can," he said, "people are sent into a system that is not well organized."

In Santa Fe, Malone has had only one encounter with the medical system, an emergency trip to the ultiMED urgent care facility, which he said had a successful outcome.

Malone is working on his next book, a history of forgiveness. But he and his wife, Vicki, also intend to relax in Santa Fe, attending photo workshops, taking art lessons, visiting nearby ruins, reading local history and moving into a new house in the northern foothills.