Medical student Michael Corbo reflects on what he’s learnt from being a patient. I am sitting on a green chair in the waiting room. I have been sitting here for hours, but it feels like it has been days. I keep looking at the clock on the wall beside me. The room is filled with […]
Latest articles
Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine: Call For Applications
The “Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine”, is now accepting applications for the 2011 entry and invites both national and international submissions. […]
Hearing Voices
Perhaps, one form of illness where telling a story of the body is most evident is in respect to mental health. Yesterday’s ruling by the High Court’s Court of Protection, that a 69 year old lady with severe schizophrenia must receive the medical treatment for a prolapsed womb, which she has been strongly refusing and […]
Gawande’s ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ and Jurisevic’s ‘Blood on My Hands’
Atul Gawande has published ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ with Profile Books. Its about his WHO project to develop an 18 point safety checklist for non-cardiac operations. His blend of anecdotes and data makes comparison with building construction and aircraft accident investigation. On a more personal level Craig Jurisevic has published ‘Blood on my Hands’ as an […]
LRB and Alan Bennett’s Greening of Mrs Donaldson
London Review of Books for 9 Sept 2010 has interesting short story by Alan Bennett about a middle aged widower who, after becoming a landlady to medical students, becomes a demonstration patient. The doctor in charge of the medical students exhibits many of the unfortunate characteristics that greater exposure to the patient’s POV is designed […]
Fasting: Unto Life and Until Death
The month of Ramadan is drawing to a close. During this time, Muslims from every terrain, from the hottest countries, to the most Westernised societies, have been involved in a shared yet equally an exclusive passage of religious rites. Ramadan is a unique time in the Islamic year. For a period of one month, the […]
Institute of Medical Ethics Grants and Awards
For information on generous grants offered by the Institute of Medical Ethics for medical student electives, internships and related intercalated degree courses, as well as institutional grants see below. […]
A Doctor’s Language
If it is true what the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty says, then, “man is at home in language”. What are the implications for the experiences of patients, when a doctor’s mother tongue speaks from a two thousand year long tradition of medical descriptions since Hippocrates founded Western medicine. The reason I have begun such questioning is from […]
When a child is born, where is the war? In Memory of Dr Karen Woo.
The recent deaths of ten people in Afghanistan, working for a Christian charity to promote healthcare, have shocked nations across the globe. In particular, the unfolding story about British Dr Woo’s decision to enter a war zone have revealed a raw and sobering side to the war that we have grown used to hearing the […]
“A supremely worthwhile, if sometimes unbearably demanding job”: Ray Tallis on doctoring
I’d hazard a guess that no matter how much editors like to think that readers enjoy having their ideas and prejudices challenged, theres nothing in practice that the average reader likes better than an opinion that chimes neatly with their own. Which, I’ve no doubt, is why I enjoyed reading Ray Tallis’s article in yesterday’s […]