Blog by Angelo Chen Narrative medicine interventions have demonstrated benefits in clinical practice, including improved patient-provider relationships, quality of life, and promotion of positive health outcomes. This is likely due to the emphasis on “deep and generous listening, along with patient-sensitive, inclusive care.”1 A common way to incorporate narrative medicine into clinical practice is through […]
Category: Blog
Communicating Science through Bharatanatyam Dance
Blog by Sloka Iyengar, PhD The intentions and motivations of scientists are still misunderstood by the public. The reasons for this disconnect are complex and include scientific jargon, the third person orientation of science, and the stereotype that scientists are socially inept and isolated. However, the “doing” of science is a group process involving not […]
Doctorate of Medicine Degrees in Ayurveda: A Temerarious Step
Blog by G. L. Krishna A recent notification in The Gazette of India: Extraordinary1 has formalised the initiative of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine to start Doctorate of Medicine (DM) courses in ayurveda. DM courses will be introduced for six subjects: psychiatry, hepatology, oncology, orthopaedics, reproductive medicine and gerontology. They are […]
Conversations in Chaos
Blog by Kim Kain In Hindu tradition, the deity Vishnu periodically descends from the heavens to restore cosmic balance in times of chaos. On a morning in February 2023, in the midst of campus protests across the US centering on the Israel-Palestine crisis, a group of twenty medical school faculty members contemplated a sandstone sculpture […]
Who is Speaking for Bruce Willis? When Third Party Narratives Encroach on Patient Rights
Blog by Arlene Jackson The family of actor Bruce Willis first shared his diagnosis of aphasia and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) via social media in 2022, stating: “Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much […]
Dementia and Processing Trauma through Art
Blog by Beatrice O’ Shea F. Van Abeelen (1933-2016), a Dutch man with dementia, made the same drawing, of the same crack in a wall, countless times in the last few years of his life. He used coloured pencils or markers, which give the images a childlike nature and simplicity. Little can be found about […]
Public Health and the “Disease” of Violence: A Retrospective
Blog by Sophie Franklin Part of the Public Health Humanities Series And if disease is violence, and yet is within human control, is it not true that violence itself, at least, to some extent, is susceptible of being removed? –William A. Alcott1 The question of whether violence can be eradicated like a disease may seem […]
Remembering Patients Together
Blog by Eileen Barrett About fifteen years ago, I attended a patient’s funeral mass and was touched to hear her family mention me in the eulogy. I felt honored and grateful, but also a little embarrassed because I had treated her and her family the way any of my colleagues would have during her care. […]
Metaphors in the Care of Pediatric Sexual Abuse Survivors
Blog by Aanya Ravichander Metaphors may be as necessary to illness as they are to literature, as comforting to the patient as his own bathrobe and slippers. —Anatole Broyard1 Studies show that patients communicate better with physicians who use metaphors.2 Metaphors not only subconsciously influence our thinking, they determine how we approach obstacles, conceptualize […]
Why Public Health Information Should Incorporate Socio-cultural Insights
Blog by Rui Liu and Susanne Lundin The COVID-19 pandemic brought up many public health challenges, including a lack of knowledge about how the public tackles health worries on an everyday basis. People were concerned about whether face masks would work, whether home remedies of various kinds could help, and about how to get vaccinated. […]