About The Author

Dr. Galen L. Barbour

I was a clinician, teacher and medical researcher in the VA for 23 years before I was asked to assume the responsibility for directing the national system program of quality improvement. In that position and with the help of several talented individuals, we were able to create a new definition of quality and provide tools for measurement and mechanisms for improvement where needed. Within a few years the RAND Corporation reported that VA delivered very high quality care. Many of those involved in the process wanted it made public, so I wrote and edited two books on the topic of how the VA System created a system to deliver high quality medical care.

After 33 years in the VA I accepted a position at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and taught public health and healthcare administration. While there, the department developed a new Masters Program in Healthcare Administration and Policy aimed at the clinicians who will become directors of the clinical healthcare facilities in DoD.

After retirement I spent a few years researching our family’s ancestry. When I was diagnosed with lymphoma I determined to engage in something to preserve my cognitive ability during chemotherapy. So I wrote a medical murder mystery, Death Unexpected, during that time. With encouragement from my family and especially my wife, I published that book with Dorrance. During the process of editing and re-writing the book, several other potential plots of medical murder mystery came to mind. Consequently, I published a second mystery, One, Two, Three times a Murder, with AuthorHouse and later three other books with Page publishing and PenCulture and using the opportunities for self-publishing available through sites such as Draft2Digital and Findaway Voices.

I have just completed a sixth book in this series about Ron Looney and Tom Bolling. That manuscript is currently under review by a national publishing house. And I am working on two additional stories.

In the meantime I try to read 2-3 books a week on history, philosophy, religion, politics or, of course, murder mystery. By the way, I actually drove the 1969 Jaguar FHC XKE for five years.