Jan 19, 2016 | Doctoring, Patients, Writing
This month I focus exclusively on writings by and about the writer-neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi, who died last year at age 37. I didn’t know him, and I only met his wife briefly years ago. So this isn’t personal or coyly promotional. It’s just admiration and awe for a...
Feb 7, 2015 | Aging, Doctoring, Health Care, News and Updates, Public Medical Communication, Social Media, Writing
Great writing comes in many shapes and sizes, from a single sentence of stunning lyricism or profound insight to an epic novel that captures a particular time and place in all its complexity, or an essay that succeeds as much because of its form as its content....
Jun 9, 2014 | Public Medical Communication, Writing
This was the question a writing-inclined youngdoctor (UCSF palliative care fellow @lauraekoehn) and I faced recently. She had never blogged and felt ambivalent despite encouragement from our local GeriPal bloggerati, Eric Widera and Alex Smith. I blogged when my book...
Dec 18, 2013 | Public Medical Communication, Writing
I love the New York Times Magazine. At first glance, this may seem a low risk, even dull, statement. But the truth is that reading this weekly hodgepodge of facts and articles and photos, of politics and science and culture and fiction, is almost a secret pleasure....
Mar 18, 2013 | Doctoring, Public Medical Communication, Writing
aka Ten Doctor Writers Everyone Should Read Let me just start by acknowledging that top 10 lists are: absurd, biased, intriguing, powerful, useless, helpful, and ubiquitous – depending of course on the topic, its author, and you, its reader. Some of this author’s...
