Cheltenham’s ‘Medicine Unboxed’ is a series of conferences for NHS staff, exploring a view of medicine that aspires to more than the technical and which necessarily refers to values, uncertainty and human understanding – to art as much as science. This year, in partnership with the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, we engage the interface between medicine, language and stories. What do stories tell us about human experience and how might such understanding inform patient care? How is language used and how might it be used to communicate the experience of sickness and medicine? How can performance teach us to engage more effectively? Our contributors this year – a sparkling mix of poets, writers, linguists and performers including Salley Vickers, Deborah Kirklin, Jo Shapcott, Gwyneth Lewis, Guy Deutscher Dannie Abse, Amateur Transplants and Performing Medicine – begin to tackle just these questions. Tickets cost £15 – find us on www.medicineunboxed.com and come and join the very lively debate.

Dr Samir Guglani, Conference Organiser