We are seeking high quality blog posts on a broad range of issues related to health humanities. We especially look for submissions on themes related to social justice, global outreach, and inclusivity. We believe that the work of medical humanities is deeply entrenched in ethics, so we encourage reflections on our moral obligations toward beings enmeshed […]
Latest articles
CFP: Contribute to BMJ’s Medical Humanities Journal!
I’m Brandy Schillace, Editor in Chief of BMJ’s Medical Humanities Journal, an official journal of the Institute of Medical Ethics. We’ve spent the last four years working toward social justice, accessibility, global outreach, and inclusivity. We’ve welcomed research and writing from the LGBTQ and disability community, and included podcasts with activists and others dedicated to […]
Ethical Guidelines for Antiracism Work in Medicine: Lessons from the Antiracist Healing Collaborative
Article Summary by Rupinder Legha Racism is a centuries-old public health crisis that has devastated countless lives. Up until recently, it did not garner much attention in healthcare. The worldwide racial reckoning that transpired in 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic and George Floyd’s lynching changed that. An explosion of antiracism efforts has […]
The ‘Glasgow Effect’: The Controversial Cultural Life of a Public Health Term
Article Summary by Fred Spence Why are so many more Glaswegians dying, and younger, compared to English cities with almost identical deprivation levels? This was a hot topic in Scottish public health debates in the early twenty-first century. Public health researchers, particularly the Glasgow Centre of Population Health (GCPH), used the terms ‘Glasgow effect’ and […]
Meaning and Role of Functional-Organic Distinction: A Study of Clinicians in Psychiatry and Neurology Services
Article Summary by Alice Chesterfield and Jordan Harvey Despite much controversy, the functional-organic distinction attempts to distinguish symptoms, signs, and syndromes that can be explained by diagnosable biological changes (‘organic’) from those that cannot (‘functional’). It appears across medicine but has particular relevance in neuropsychiatric settings where it is often central to treatment decisions and […]
Tears on Tears: A Career Built on the Tragedies of Others
Tár (Todd Field, USA, 2022) Review by Franco Ferrarini, gastroenterologist, and film reviewer Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is a world-famous conductor. Her fame is not just due to her achieving the prestigious position of being the director of the Berlin Philharmonic, but also for being the first female chief conductor reaching this position. However, she […]
Narratives of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Healing Through Music in Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach
Article Summary by Neha Hejaz and Rajni Singh This article is an attempt to acknowledge the clinical uses of fictional narratives of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) within health care. The purpose of studying fiction lies in exploring the lives of individuals in an imaginative manner, offering a deeper existential understanding of problems, and developing of […]
Personalism and Boosting Organ ResERVOirs: A Consideration of Euthanasia by Removal of Vital Organs in the Canadian Context
Article Summary by Jamie Grunwald Canada’s decriminalisation of assisted death has elicited significant ethical implications for the use of assisted death in healthcare contexts. Euthanasia by removal of vital organs (ERVO) is a theoretical extension of medically assisted death with an increased plausibility of implementation in light of the rapid expansion of assisted death eligibility […]
On the Art of Audio Description: Interview with Naomi Kawase, Director of the Film Radiance
Interview by Aleksandra Glos and Felipe Toro Franco This interview was conducted in relation to the manuscript “On the art of audio description: Naomi Kawase’s Radiance”, published in Medical Humanities. The reviewers of this article wanted to know whether Naomi Kawase had worked with audio describers during the preparation of the film. As we could not find this information […]
Hospital Space Interpreted According to Heidegger’s Concepts of Care and Dwelling
Article Summary by Hye Youn Park In today’s era, hospitals have solidified their position as central hubs closely intertwined with human life, overcoming numerous diseases through remarkable progress in science and technology. Despite being the focal point of human existence, discussions about hospital spaces often linger within the therapeutic tool perspective, emphasizing the effectiveness of […]
Redefining Global Cardiac Surgery Through an Intersectionality Lens
Article Summary by Dominique Vervoort, Lina A Elfaki, Maria Servito, Karla Yael Herrera-Morales and Kudzai Kanyepi Around the world, more than six billion people are unable to undergo heart surgery. This is a result of an absence of surgeons and other health workers, insufficient money or health insurance, limited supplies, or a combination of factors. […]
An Orisha in Bristol: Henrietta Lacks and Mojisola Adebayo’s Family Tree
Blog by Taylor Riley Bristol, UK is a monument to the intertwining of histories of slavery and medicine. Smaller, literal monuments around the city tell its stories. There is the plinth that once held the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, which Black Lives Matter protestors toppled and drowned in the harbor in 2020. The […]