Writing About Medicine I

Jan 3, 2013 | Public Medical Communication, Writing

Eight of the 24 essays in the 2012 Best American Essays collection were about medicine. The topics included menopause as a vehicle to the true self, a writing class for children at a cancer hospital, the life of a rural druggist, why so many of Americans now take...

My Christmas Books and The Importance of Being Alice (Munro)

Dec 26, 2012 | Writing

Under the Christmas tree for me this year:          This last book has made every top 10 list I have seen. Although the octogenarian author Alice Munro has been writing for decades, it’s only in recent years – since she received the Man Booker prize in...

An American Problem

Dec 20, 2012 | Patients

It has been hard this week in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings not to think of children, and of all the ways in which they can be and are hurt. It has also seemed important to think about how we can help, if only by talking to the children we know and checking in...

In Defense of Fiction

Dec 13, 2012 | Doctoring, Public Medical Communication, Writing

It is widely known and well documented that third year medical students – future doctors thrown for the first time into daily patient care – are raw, awed, frustrated, exhilarated, confused, astonished, angry, eager and exhausted. Suddenly, they are members of teams...

On Soup, Sex, and Cystic Fibrosis

Dec 10, 2012 | Doctoring, Health Care, Patients

My last blog post, in which I discussed how sometimes physicians see only one side of their patients’ lives, provides a good lead into this week’s Featured Story of the Week. “Soup or Sex” is a sort of doctor-patient love story, and part of why the doctor falls for...