Few writers have had the opportunity to see two of their novels become such record-shattering best sellers as Airport and Hotel. But then few novelists possess Arthur Hailey's remarkable talents. Combining a meticulous eye for detail with a profound sense of human drama, he cuts through the impersonal facade of our great institutions to reveal the all-too-personal conflicts below. THE FINAL DIAGNOSIS was the first of Hailey's exciting novels. A story of the life and death struggles in a large hospital, it focuses on Joe Pearson, the chief pathologist who must make the final diagnosis on every patient-and eventually on himself. Although it has not yet received the same popular acclaim as its sequels, this novel lacks none of Hailey's immense narrative powers. No-admirer of his works will want to miss it. A motion picture version of this novel was entitled The Young Doctors.

Arthur Hailey (April 5, 1920 – November 24, 2004) was a British-Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries. His meticulously researched books, which include such best sellers as Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), and Overload (1979), have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages