I don’t know what to do with my life. I love surgery and I love people. It is frequently implied to me, without much subtlety, that those values are steeply at odds. “Surgery? I’m surprised! You’re so patient, you take time to explain things, and you don’t seem to get frustrated.” The resident had just met […]
Category: Blog
Who are we as Doctors? Why an exploration of our significance can lead to better care by Benjamin Janaway
Recently I lost a patient. A lady in her 60’s whose hand I held for months and who’s passing will stand as a turning point in my career. Having spent several months working in oncology my view of the role of a doctor has been tested time and time again. Publically observed heuristics of the […]
Guest Essay: “A mind diseased”: Examining the evolution of madness using Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Sarah Ahmed
INTRODUCTION Over the years, our understanding of what it means to be mad has evolved. Ancient civilisations held the belief that madness was as a result of spiritual possession; the Enlightenment’s concept of rationality remade madness into an external manifestation of internal grief; in the last century we have started to develop biological theories […]
The Artist in Theatre: On the Primacy of the Subjective Narrative by Jac Saorsa
Drawing Women’s Cancer explores the lived experience of gynaecological illness through a unique interrelation between art and medical science. Based in Cardiff and supported by Cardiff University and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, the project began in 2012 as a collaboration between myself and Amanda Tristram, gynaecological surgeon. Since then it has produced two […]
Dr Ahmed Rashid: “Diseases of the heart: Where theology meets cardiology”
Associations between religion and health have been debated for many years. This interest has been paralleled in the medical literature and has led to the inclusion of religious, cultural and sociological topics into medical school curricula, encouraging future clinicians to adopt a more holistic approach to understanding patients and their behaviours. Much of the research […]
James Poskett: Digital surgeons at sea
A few months ago I was raving about the prospects of a maritime history of medicine, the ship’s medicine chest being the focus of some of my latest studies. Since writing that piece, the Wellcome Trust and National Archives have completed the digitisation of the Royal Navy Medical Officers’ journals. The project, entitled Surgeons at […]
Ayesha Ahmad: Hearing Voices; Illusions and delusions as God enters the doctor-patient dialogue
As medicine evolves, or rather reveals, nuances that speak of an inherent interdisciplinary nature, how are we to recognise and become accustomed with voices other than the language of textbooks; the sounds of monitors and machines; and the neutral tone of the doctor to patient dialogue? What happens when the patient hears God? […]
James Poskett: Medicine adrift at sea
You’re on board a small British merchant ship in the English Channel and you start to feel very ill. There’s no doctor on board. What do you do? If the year is 1844, you’re in luck. The Government has recently made it compulsory for all merchant vessels to carry medicines, to be kept in a […]
Ayesha Ahmad: ‘Medicine and Metaphors; Writing from the heart’
Since the time of Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician, who is regarded as the “Father of Medicine,” medicine and the humanities have been interwined with all human beings in all cultures through a shared and common desire to heal. Sometimes though, the very fatality and mortality that gives rise to our existential meanings; our ethereal […]
Oncologist Sam Guglani wonders what medical care really means
Care infuses medicine. Well, the word ‘care’ infuses the language of medicine – Healthcare, Intensive Care, Palliative Care, Standard care, Standard of care, Best supportive care, Care Quality Commission. But what actually is medical care? […]