A Doctor’s Journey Through Healing and the Human Heart.

What happens when a boy from a struggling Boston family defies the odds to become CEO of a major hospital system, then spends his career challenging the very system he leads?

In On All Sides of the Bed, Dr. Joseph Pepe delivers a powerful, deeply personal memoir that spans every corner of healthcare, from the patient’s bedside to the boardroom. After surviving a catastrophic spinal cord injury as a teenager, Pepe fought his way into medicine, determined to make a difference. But his greatest challenges came not in the operating room, but in the executive suite, where compassion and bureaucracy collide.

With unflinching honesty and grace, Pepe reflects on the triumphs and trials of a lifetime in medicine: the moral conflicts of leadership, the quiet courage of caregivers, and the enduring hope of patients who refuse to give up. Along the way, he exposes the hidden tensions that define modern healthcare, its miracles, its inequities, and its capacity for redemption.

Part memoir, part insider’s look at American medicine, On All Sides of the Bed is an inspiring reminder that healing is not only a profession, it’s a calling.

For readers of Atul Gawande, Paul Kalanithi, and Abraham Verghese, this is a story of resilience, ethics, and the belief that one person can still make a difference.