In the coming months, one of history’s most ambitious vaccination campaigns will begin in earnest. Complex political, social and cultural factors will shape public reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine, and communication surrounding the vaccine’s arrival will be as critical as its underlying efficacy. Before entering the fray, reflecting on some powerful vaccination images can help […]
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Accessing the Future (in a voting year): ways forward for LGBTQ+ health access
In today’s podcast, Dr. Ng speaks with EIC Brandy Schillace about issues of LGBTQ+ and health accessibility. Already a difficult prospect, access to care for this population has become increasingly precarious during the COVID epidemic. Dr. NG describes some of the problems faced by patients and by clinicians—and looks for ways of making a better […]
A woman on the verge of suicide
‘The Human Voice’ directed by Pedro Almodovar (Spain 2020) shown at the London Film Festival 2020 and due for UK wide release on 7th November Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘The Human Voice’ takes back esteemed Spanish Film auteur, Pedro Almodovar to the narratives he cherishes the most; stories of embittered women […]
William Carlos Williams: Physician Poet Scrawls Theory of Medical Humanities Throughout Prescription Pad
Blog by Audrey Ruan “The use of poetry is to vivify,” William Carlos Williams jotted onto a prescription pad over half a century ago. In the pages that followed, he hastily sketched out a theory of the interwoven contributions of science and poetry, published here for the first time. The prescription book is part of […]
Rap Back in Anger
‘Mogul Mowgli’ directed by Bassam Tariq (UK, 2020) Showing at the London Film Festival on Saturday 10th October and Tuesday 13th October. Review by Khalid Ali, film, and Media Correspondent Professor Marshall Marinker argues that there are significant differences between ‘disease’, ‘illness’ and ‘sickness.’ Disease signifies a pathology that is often physical and is an […]
Waiting in Health and Medical Care: A Preliminary Exploration
Blog by K Rajasekharan Nayar; Anant Kumar; Muhammed Shaffi; Arathi P Rao; Anand Marthanda Pillai; S S Lal The notion of waiting is a deeply ingrained in human life both materially and spiritually, and has a philosophical connotation as well. In material terms, one can identify myriad ways in which waiting becomes important—waiting and hope […]
Performance, Medicine and the Human
Book Review by Jeffrey M. Brown Mermikides, Alex. Performance, Medicine and the Human. Methuen Drama, 2020. ISBN: 9781350022157. In 2005, US Senator Sam Brownback sponsored a bill seeking to outlaw the creation of “human chimeras,” arguing that the mere existence of “chimeras”—embryos that incorporate cellular material borrowed from either a non-human or another human source—“raises […]
The Dignity of Help: Sara Hendren’s What A Body Can Do
Podcast with Sara Hendren, artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering, and Brandy Schillace, EIC Sara Hendren’s book, What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World, looks at design and disability at all scales: prosthetics, furniture, architecture, urban planning, and more, to examine critically the definition of the […]
September Issue: Death and Dying in the Operating Theatre
In today’s post we are happy to present a summary of ‘A small cemetery’: death and dying in the contemporary British operating theatre by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster (@agnesjuliet on Twitter). Dr Arnold-Forster is a historian of health, work, and the emotions. She received her PhD in 2017 from King’s College London and until August 2020 […]
Remembering Lives
‘The Forgotten C’ (UK, 2020) produced and co-written by Jessi Gutch, directed by Molly Manning Walker, is available to stream free from 10am BST 24 September on The Uncertain Kingdom YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdK4RoVAJx94Ni_2zG5HVnQ Film Review by Khalid Ali, film, and media correspondent The impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients has been substantial; most cancer screening […]