Article Summary by Monika Ankele and Céline Kaiser From the start, the profound transformations that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic found expression in a plethora of objects and facilities that dominated our daily lives far beyond the clinical sphere. Supermarkets, hotel receptions, taxis, restaurants, doctors’ surgeries and even schools were equipped with plexiglass screens of all […]
Latest articles
The Story Behind Kaleidoscopic Minds: An Anthology of Poetry by Neurodivergent Women
Blog by Dr. Catherine Bell, GP and coeditor of Kaleidoscopic Minds Kaleidoscopic Minds is an anthology of poetry written by neurodivergent women. The poets featured in this collection belong to a generation of late-diagnosed, undiagnosed and misdiagnosed women with lived experience of ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, OCD, and tics. The editors believe that poetry is […]
What Makes a ‘Good Doctor’? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Perspectives from Medical Students with Lived Experience as Patients
Article Summary by Erene Stergiopoulos and Maria Athina (Tina) Martimianakis What counts a ‘good doctor’ depends on who we ask. Research has shown that patients prioritise communication and empathy, while doctors emphasise medical expertise, and medical students describe a combination of the two. This study explored the concepts of the ‘good doctor’ held by medical […]
Stories of the Futures You Didn’t See Coming: Scenario Planning, Healthcare, and the Humanities
Blog by Matt Finch Though it’s just a trick of the calendar, as the new year begins our thoughts inevitably turn to the future. Yet we cannot gather data from events that haven’t happened yet, and forecasts drawing on precedent can flounder when situations are unstable. Under so-called “TUNA” conditions of turbulence, uncertainty, novelty, and […]
You Are Special: The Global Importance of Identifying the Needs of Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer
Blog by Hilde M. Buiting, Ikenna D. Ebuenyi, Phyllis N. Butow and Gabe S. Sonke Ninety-Two Participants from Twenty-Seven Countries in One Meeting In November 2019, ninety-two healthcare professionals, patients and patient advocates from twenty-seven countries from all over the world attended a multidisciplinary workshop to discuss gaps in care and support for patients with […]
Forensic Rhetoric: COVID-19 and the Boundaries of Healthcare Evidence
Article Summary by David Houston Jones The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the role of medical evidence in public health presentations. This article investigates the rhetoric of those presentations, from ‘podium’ presentations such as press conferences to online forums and visualisations of the virus. In all of these, rhetorical forms arise from the […]
Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from a Nine-Country Interview Study in Europe
Article Summary by Katharina Kieslich, Amelia Fiske, Marie Gaille, Ilaria Galasso, Susi Geiger, Nora Hangel, Ruth Horn, Marjolein Lanzing, Sébastien Libert, Elisa Lievevrouw, Federica Lucivero, Luca Marelli, Barbara Prainsack, Franziska Schönweitz, Tamar Sharon, Wanda Spahl, Ine Van Hoyweghen and Bettina M. Zimmermann Solidarity is a term that many people are familiar with, but most would […]
Listening, learning, caring: exploring assemblages of, ethics of and pathways to care for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
Article Summary by Andrea LaMarre, Kathryn McGuigan and Melinda Lewthwaite What does care mean, in the context of treatment for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)? In this paper, we explored that question, engaging with stories shared with us by 14 caregivers of individuals with ARFID. We were specifically interested in how participants described their […]
Students Reflect on a Poetry Reading and Craft Seminar within a Narrative Medicine Curriculum
Reflection by Lucas Axiotakis M.D., Kensington Cochran, Jude Okonkwo, W. Conor Rork and Owen Lewis, M.D. Within the medical curriculum at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, there is a well-articulated program of Narrative Medicine Training from the first through final semesters (Charon et al, 1995, 2016; Devlin et al, 2015; Cunningham et […]
UK Media Responses to HIV through the Lens of COVID-19: A Study of Multidirectional Memory
Article Summary by Fran Pheasant-Kelly Covid-19 affected, and continues to affect us all to some degree. For those who were around in the 1980s, there are aspects of the virus that chillingly recall the initial terrors of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Such connections are evident in news media coverage of Covid-19 – this article examines those […]