Tony Sclama

About Tony Sclama

Tony (Anthony) Sclama is a retired physician with degrees in Biology and Human Physiology from Georgetown University, Medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Business/Healthcare Management from Johns Hopkins University. A Rhode Island native, his medical career spanned thirty-two years and included a full-time practice of Urologic Surgery and service as Chief Medical Officer at a community hospital in Baltimore. He and his wife currently reside in Bethany Beach, Delaware, where he began his “second” career in fiction writing featuring backdrops of medicine and scientific issues. His first novel, Wrongful Acts, involves gene therapy, genetic engineering and a conspiracy to defraud the FDA. His second book, Avoidable Harm, is now available.

BOOKS:

Avoidable Harm: When the Bottom Line Is All That Matters (2023)

Wrongful Acts (2021)

Your biggest literary influencers:

Michael Crichton, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Palmer, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell.

What readers will take away from your books:

Stories based on the intersection between medicine, science and various dramatic literary themes in the suspense/thriller genres.

What is your ideal target audience?

Readers of suspense and thriller novels, especially those based on medical or scientific issues.

If you had to describe your book as a cross between two well-known books, what would you say?

Coma meets The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The book that changed your life:

Ring the Night Bell, the intimate memoir of Doctor Paul Magnuson, an innovative Orthopedic Surgeon who championed the cause of adequate health care for American Veterans. This inspiring story goes from his first office above a saloon in the Chicago stockyards to Chief Medical Director of the Veterans Administration, developing unprecedented surgical techniques along the way. It sparked my interest in medicine and becoming a physician.

Tell us about the protagonist in your latest book, and who would play her or him if they made a movie out of your book?

In Wrongful Acts, Dr. Allisyn McLoren is a renowned researcher in the field of genetics and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for her work, a strong-willed individual with some emotional issues who has been appointed as Commissioner of the FDA and must confront a conspiracy to defraud the agency. I would choose Keri Russell (The Americans, The Diplomat), to portray the character as her roles in the mentioned movies represents that persona perfectly.  

If your protagonist could befriend any character from literature, who would he or she choose?

Good question! I would say Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an enigmatic and spirited character whose free-wheeling persona is the opposite of Allisyn’s more grounded personality required of a medical researcher, but would be a welcome change from those surrounding Allisyn in her constrained professional environment.   

If you could write a retelling of any book and put your own spin on it, which book would you choose and why?

This is a tough one. I’d say To Kill a Mockingbird, mainly because I consider it the great American novel as is. However if I were to rewrite it, I would make Atticus a physician and explore medical issues such as mental health, using Boo Radley’s character as a focus issue.

Your favorite literary character:

Odd Thomas. I found Dean Koontz’s crafting of that character and maintaining it over the course of the series amazingly consistent and always intriguing.

Articles / Reviews:

Amazon reviews