I’ve got a confession: I, and indeed a significant number of my fellow GPs, have got an unhealthy obsession with vitamin D. Or, to be more precise, vitamin D deficiency and the apparent inability of the NHS to make available to me, as a prescriber, the means to treat it in my patients. You see […]
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Eating yourself sick in pregnancy: why it would be NICE to understand the historical context
Earlier this month the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence produced very welcome guidance for all of those who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for women who are pregnant or who are planning a pregnancy and mothers who have had a baby in the last 2 years. http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH27 As […]
Wanted: Art, Poetry and Prose: call for submissions from Ars Medica
For all you creative types looking for a suitable outlet for your art, poetry and prose, this call from the respected Canadian journal ARS MEDICA may be just what you’ve been looking for. […]
“Language in Health Care: Inspiring or Dispiriting?”16th-17th September 2010, Woodbrooke College, Birmingham
This is a small, participative, interdisciplinary conference for users, professionals and academics organised by Think About Health, a network committed to doing collaborative ‘intellectual plumbing’ in the NHS. Key note speakers include Femi Oyebode (poet and psychiatrist) and David Fuller (emeritus professor of English). Other contributions from Angus Clarke (clinical geneticist), Deb Lee (paediatrician), Martyn Evans […]
Artist Mark Gilbert and his Portraits of Care: Medical Humanities’ Editors Choice
Anyone lucky enough to have come across or been engaged with Mark Gilbert’s work in the Changing Faces exhibition will be pleased to hear that more of his work is now publicly available. http://mh.bmj.com/content/suppl/2010/06/23/36.1.5.DC1/MH_Appendix_003780.pdf One of Mark’s paintings, Jarad, featured on the cover of the June issue of Medical Humanities and I would urge you to go […]
“Medicine Unboxed 2010: Stories, Language & Medicine” Cheltenham Saturday 9th October 2010
Cheltenham’s ‘Medicine Unboxed’ is a series of conferences for NHS staff, exploring a view of medicine that aspires to more than the technical and which necessarily refers to values, uncertainty and human understanding – to art as much as science. This year, in partnership with the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, we engage the interface between […]
Join in our online poll on how individual patient stories have affected the way you practice medicine
New this month to the Medical Humanities website is a series of online polls. The polls will appear once a month and provide an opportunity for you to share with others your experiences and thoughts about the interaction between clinical practice and medical humanities. As well as being asked to answer a simple yes/ no […]
“In the Land of Invisible Women” by Qanta Ahmed
I have recently been reading a memoir by a British lady, of Pakistan origin, who undertakes a position as a medical doctor at a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The book is beautifully formatted, with a cover decorated in Islamic art and design, with each chapter laid out to chronicle another adventure in Dr Ahmed’s […]
Clinical Ethics Conference: London 8-9th July 2010
On the 8th and 9th of July 2010 the Faculty of Health and Social Care at London South Bank University will be hosting a pioneering conference focusing on Best Practices in Clinical Ethics Consultation and Decision Making. For the first time in the UK, this conference will bring together an international and inter-professional dialogue between different stakeholders with the aim […]
Humanities at the Cutting Edge: an AMH Conference with sun, sea and surf as added extras: Truro 5-7th July 2010
The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, one of the UK’s newer medical schools, has got a lot of things going for it, including its location in the glorious west country. A fact that won’t escape the notice of those lucky enough to be attending the annual conference of the Association of Medical Humanities this July. […]