Book Review by Samuel Freeman Carl Erik Fisher, The Urge: Our History of Addiction (New York: Penguin Press, 2022). ISBN 978-0525561446. Carl Erik Fisher’s use of alcohol and drugs nearly ended his burgeoning career when he was a psychiatrist in training. In The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Fisher, a psychiatrist, bioethicist, and addiction specialist […]
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A Commentary on Traumatic Events – Medical Training in the Wake of 2020
Blog by Lisa P. Michelson, M.A., M.Phys., and Sara J. King, B.S. Acknowledgements: Aaron Fox, Quinta Fernandes, Santiago Bejarano Hernandez “You – hold pressure on the thigh wound!” “Peds Surg is on their way!” “Placing a second IV.” “How much Morphine has he gotten?” “Can someone distract him with his bear?” These are the voices […]
Listen to Me
Film Review by Robert Abrams Buzz (short film, Sudan 2022, directed by Mohamed Fawi, produced by Amjad Abu Alala, distributed by Mad Solutions), world Premiere at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) Buzz, a new short film created by the visionary director Mohamed Fawi, presents, in just under 20 minutes, several different themes that […]
We Are Trying to Put the Humanity Back Into Medicine … So, Why Do We Keep Removing It?
By Meagan Brennan The focus on patient-centred care has prompted physicians to consider how to better centre the human experience in healthcare. Most patient-centred initiatives ask, “How can we put the humanity back into our medical practice?” Perhaps a better question is “Why did we remove it at all?” Instead of trying to foster […]
Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis
Book Review by Laura Grace Simpkins James Davies. Atlantic Books, 2021. 9781786499875. More than 20 per cent of adults take a psychiatric drug each year in Britain alone–over a 500 per cent increase since 1980. Despite this ‘prescription epidemic’, the prevalence of mental illnesses, from the least to most severe, has simultaneously risen. Many of […]
Let’s End Violence Against Girls and Women: International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): Monday, 6 February 2023
Professor Hassan Shehata is the current RCOG Vice President for Global Health. In this blog, he reflects on the RCOG’s role in eradicating Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), and launches a call for action by healthcare professionals and NGO’s around the world to stop all forms of gender-based violence including FGM. Introduction: about FGM When […]
Giuseppe Tornatore, A Master of Italian Cinema Constantly Reflecting on the Past
Film Review by Franco Ferrarini, Gastroenterologist and Film Reviewer ‘Film Legends Among Us’ series There is no future, Salvatore: only the past exists. (Quote from “Cinema Paradiso”) Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter who, after the Golden era from the ‘50s to the ‘70’s led by Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, restored […]
The Poet Who Conquered Malaria: Medical Humanities and the Public Understanding of Science
Blog by Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie In the sweltering heat of British India, a doctor was working late one evening in his laboratory. His scalpel glinted with the sweat from his brow as he dissected his 1000th mosquito, gently separating the flesh of the thorax from the abdomen. He was tired, a little feverish, and about […]
A New Take on the Canonic Book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Book Review by Luxin Yin More than two decades after its publication in 1997, Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is frequently required reading in medical schools and used to train future practitioners on the importance of cross-cultural communication. The book concerns the difficulties faced by a young Hmong epileptic, Lia […]
The Transition from Abortion to Miscarriage to Describe Early Pregnancy Loss in British Medical Journals: A Prescribed or Natural Lexical Change?
Article Summary by Beth Malory “The transition from abortion to miscarriage to describe early pregnancy loss in British medical journals: A prescribed or natural lexical change?”, published in Medical Humanities in March 2022, investigates the origins of the shift from use of the word ‘abortion’ to ‘miscarriage’ in medical British English. Using the statistical technique Change Point Analysis, this […]