To Improve Health and Health Care, Volume IX of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Anthology, is edited by Stephen L. Isaacs, an attorney and a partner of Isaacs/Jellinek, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, and James R. Knickman, vice president for research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The variety of contributors to this book — free-lance writers, journalists, researchers, and foundation staff — provides perspectives equally experienced in the healthcare field, but differing in approach and mission.

The book's goal is to improve health and health care through communication between grantmakers, practitioners, and researchers. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president Risa Lavizzo-Mourey points out in her foreword to the book that the guiding principles of this book series are key to effective philanthropy in general: communicating, convening, coordinating, connecting, counting, and last but not least, cash.

I found the profile honoring Terrance Keenan of particular interest, and a departure from previous volumes in that it focuses on someone who worked for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In previous volumes, the anthology has avoided promoting the foundation and its work. However, Keenan's efforts and his approach to philanthropy are core to the values of the foundation today, and justifiably should be recognized.

I also appreciated the last chapter, "Public Scrutiny of Foundation and Charities: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Response." Authors Susan Krutt and David Morse review the recent Senate hearings in the context of past congressional actions. Foundations are presented as a unique national resource. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's use of evaluation and communication strategies to make its work more transparent is presented as an example of the sector's efforts to address concerns about accountability.

Volume IX is well written and well edited, and although the articles build on the first eight volumes, it certainly can stand on its own. The primary audience is health care and reform practitioners, but there is value for those in other disciplines. The clearly identified chapters will help the more casual reader to identify topics and sections of interest without reading the entire volume.