I have a confession to make: up until a month ago I was a surgical virgin, never having experienced anything more intrusive than four unwanted wisdom teeth removal Boise. Which meant that when I signed up to have operations on both my hands I didn’t have a clue what was in store, but comforted myself […]
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The Drama of Medicine-All the Ward’s a Stage: 8th Annual AMH Conference, 11-13 July 2011, University of Leicester,UK
Plans for the 8th annual conference of the Association for Medical Humanities are now well underway, with an exciting line up of papers, workshops and plenary speakers. Celebrated poet and doctor Dannie Abse will be running a session entitled Poet in a White Coat; Jed Mercurio, author of Bodies and creator of the TV series […]
Singing for the Motherland, Singing Medicine’s Cure.
A recent evening attending a live Greek music ensemble revealed some important characteristics about human nature; and significances for medicinal practices about the interconnectedness of our human condition with the Land on which we are born, live, love, suffer, and die. The words of the song bore no meaning until my friend kindly whispered its […]
2011 International Symposium on Poetry and Medicine
I recently attended the 2nd Annual Hippocrates Poetry and Medicine Symposium, which was held at Warwick Medical School and hosted by Professor Donald Singer and Associate Professor Michael Hulse. During the day, a group of researchers and clinicians from a variety of backgrounds gathered to explore the role of poetry in the discourse of medicine, […]
Dr Arati Bhatia describes her own humbling experience with cancer and chemotherapy
The drainage tube and the negative pressure bag were my constant companions for sixteen days. I was not always respectful of them, even bouncing them around occasionally. I had an intense sense of relief when we were finally parted. They had served their function well. The wound had healed, and there was no collection or […]
2011 International Symposium on Poetry and Medicine
The 2011 International Symposium shall take place on Saturday the 7th of May. It will be held at the Medical Teaching Centre, Building 37, University of Warwick Gibbet Hall Campus. […]
Medicine Unboxed 2011: Medicine and Values, Cheltenham UK 15 October 2011
Good medicine is more than a set of technical decisions and interventions involving drugs, operations or tests. It demands more of the practitioner – professionalism, empathetic care, moral consideration, insight, an understanding of human suffering and necessarily, wisdom. These attributes are not always prioritised in selecting for or training healthcare professionals, and there is little […]
Off Sick; Narratives of Illness Past and Present
Scholars from the universities of Glamorgan and Cardiff are currently breaking new ground in the Medical Humanities with the Off Sick project, writes Dr Richard Marsden. This research initiative, led by Dr Martin Willis and Dr Keir Waddington, puts a new twist on the well-known concept of the ‘illness narrative’. It focuses not on the […]
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? […]
“Newspeak (PART TWO): British Art Now is doubleplusgood!” by Dr Jane R Moore
SAATCHI GALLERY 27th October 2010 – 17th April 2011 A few weeks ago I visited the new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery with my group of 4th year King’s College Medical Students. Visits to galleries, museums and art installations are an integral part of the ‘The Good Doctor’ Special Study Module but I hadn’t included […]