One of the highly acclaimed books by Erich Segal, Doctors (1988) deals with the Harvard medical class of 1962 with emphasis on the two main characters, Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano. They grew up next to each other and always aspired to be doctors, eventually ending up in medical school together. There they meet the other characters who also came to become doctors, viz., Bennett Landsman, Seth Lazarus, Hank Dwyer, Peter Wyman, Grete Anderson, Alison Redmond, and Lance Mortimer among others. Some of the other doctors mentioned in the novel who leave a strong impression on readers' minds are: Dr. Luis Castellano, Laura's father, Dean Courtney Holmes at Harvard, Andrew Himmerman, Marshall Jaffe, Paul Rhodes and Toivo Karvonen. It is one of the more realistic depictions of medical professionals and scientific researchers in the domain, apart from the usual emotional plot. The issues of medical and research ethics and euthanasia also form integral parts of the whole plot. Erich Segal had extensively researched the lives of doctors in making and practice. Apart from that he acknowledges the inspirations from Gentle Vengeance by Charles LeBaron, Getting Better by Kenneth Klein and Becoming a Doctor by Melvin Konner. He has also drawn some anecdotes from The Making of a Surgeon by William Nolen, The Making of a Psychiatrist by David Viscott, The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality by James Rachel and Requiem pour la Vie by Leon Schwartzenberg. A similar (though much smaller book) is The Year of the Intern by Robin Cook. Doctors had reached the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
