Egyptian director, Mohammed Adel, writes about his short film, ‘My Father’, which shows the difficulties of caring for his father in the weeks before his death. Writing about my short documentary film ‘My Father’ is not an easy task, just like when I started thinking of making the film itself. This is not because ‘writing’ […]
Latest articles
Book Review: What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear
What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear by Danielle Ofri, Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2017, 288 pages, £21.99. Reviewed by Ben Bravery It is the oldest tool in any doctor’s bag, and it is as important today as it was 200 years ago. It is not a device, gadget or pill. The side-effects are […]
The Doctor as a Humanist – a Solution to Uncertainty?
Jonathan McFarland, (Sechenov University), Annalisa Manca (Queen’s University, Belfast), and Irina Markovina (Sechenov University) describe their upcoming symposium, “Can the Humanities Transform 21st Century Medicine?” In October 2017, the first “The Doctor as a Humanist” symposium will be held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, with the following subtitle “Can the Humanities Transform 21st Century Medicine?” The symposium […]
When Truth Speaks: Discourses of the Voice in Medicine
Dr Ayesha Ahmad, Global Health Humanities Correspondent, has been travelling in Afghanistan and Nepal and meeting women who’s lived experience is a conflict of chronic gender-based violence. Her initiatives are to integrate storytelling into mental health trauma interventions globally in contexts of war, oppression of women’s speech, violence towards women and girls, and writing against […]
“Congenital Glaucoma”: Commentary
Dr Richard Ratzan gives us a commentary on his poem “Congenital Glaucoma, published in BMJ Medical Humanities, and explains why he decided to write about this case using the sonnet form. This little girl – she was probably about 13 or 14; I don’t remember since it was about 10 years ago – was from […]
Book Review: Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice
Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice: New Conversations Across the Disciplines by M Buchbinder, M Rivkin-Fish and RL Walker (eds). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2016, 320 pages, £37.50. Reviewed by Professor John Harrington, Cardiff University Inequality has returned to the political agenda in Europe and North America in the aftermath of the […]
CFP: Pain and its Paradoxes
BMJ Medical Humanities will host a special issue on PAIN in June 2018! We want you to be part of it! Title: Pain and its Paradoxes Abstract Deadline: August 1, 2017 Final Submission Deadline: October 1, 2017 (publication date June 2018) Pain is almost certainly the most common illness experience on the planet. Yet, it […]
Storytelling, Suffering, and Silence: The Landscape of Trauma in Afghanistan and Nepal
Dr Ayesha Ahmad, Global Health Humanities Editor, has been travelling in Afghanistan and Nepal and meeting women who’s lived experience is a conflict of chronic gender-based violence. Her initiatives are to integrate storytelling into mental health trauma interventions globally in contexts of war, oppression of women’s speech, violence towards women and girls, and writing against […]
Film Activism: Science, Art and Social Reform
Our Screening Room editor, Khalid Ali (Khalid.ali@bsuh.nhs.uk), interviews film director and producer James Redford. Activism is defined as ‘efforts to promote or direct social, political, economic and/or environmental reform to make improvements in society’. James Redford, documentary filmmaker, producer, and humanitarian uses documentary filmmaking to truly earn the title of a ‘film activist’. I met […]
Book Review: No Apparent Distress
No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine by Rachel Pearson, New York: W.W. Norton, 2017, 272 pages, £21.99. Reviewed by John Coulehan, Stony Brook University, NY Was there a time before memoirs of medical training became a popular genre of nonfiction? It’s difficult now to imagine a time before aspiring young […]