Category: Doctors Patients and Diseases
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Synesthesia, empathy, and the “art” of medicine
Maeve Pascoe Cleveland, Ohio, United States Mind of the Beholder (click to view). Artwork by Maeve Pascoe, November 16, 2016. Presented at the 2017 Helicon History of Art Undergraduate Society “Synesthesia” student art exhibition at the University of Michigan. “Do my name next!” people would exclaim as I tried to explain that I am…
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For debate: Presents from patients
Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland Christmas gift, 1964. Drawn from memory by the author. It was Christmas Day in Guy’s Hospital, London. Two months into my first house-physician post, I was completing a morning round with the staff nurse on my female ward. At the far end of the open ward was a bed with…
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A brief history of ulcerative colitis
Parnita Kesar South Carolina, United States Anatomy of the large intestine in ancient Chinese medicine, 1537. Wellcome Collection. The symptoms of ulcerative colitis have been documented since the eighteenth century. From 1745, there is evidence that Prince Charles, the Young Pretender to the English crown, had symptoms consistent with the condition we now know…
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Empathy or sympathy?
JMS Pearce Hull, England David Jeffrey’s splendid paper about emotions and empathy1 points out that Sir William Osler claimed that by excluding emotions, doctors gained a special objective insight into the patient’s suffering. But when Osler advised students that “insensibility is not only an advantage, but a positive necessity in the exercise of a…
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“You will be alright”
Swetha Kannan Ajman, United Arab Emirates Photo by Edwintp on PxHere “Will my daughter be alright?” asked the anxious mother, trying to hold back her tears. A young girl in her early twenties, so petite and frail that her body seemed to be like a sole pearl in a large sea. Her worrisome eyes…
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Wounded healer
Brandon Muncan Stony Brook, New York Jaques-Louis David. Belisarius Begging for Alms. 1781. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Since Plato, the notion of a sufferer helping the suffering has been proposed as one of the more skillful ways of helping a patient through an illness.1 Although this concept has been discussed since the time of…
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The man shackled on 4 Northwest
Andria Albert Tucson, Arizona, United States Photo by Nikon Corporation on Unsplash. In one of the patient rooms tucked into the Northwest (NW) wing of the fourth floor of the hospital, there lay a particular man. Upon walking into his room, you would find nothing extraordinary about him. He is young, early thirties, with…
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White Australia: How white healthcare has affected Indigenous Australians
Brittany Suann Western Australia Rural Australia. Photo by author. Australian healthcare is among the best, and Australia boasts the eighth lowest mortality rates in the world.1 For Indigenous Australians, however, health outcomes are 2.3 times worse than for non-Indigenous Australians.1 This gap is stark and is evident in mortality rates, the life expectancy at…
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Compassion in the emergency room
Raymond Bellis Stony Brook, New York, United States Photo by JacksonDavid on Pixabay. Yet another shift in the Emergency Department—between the frenzied rush of staff, the constant pinging of monitors, and the chaotic overhead announcements, I didn’t find the environment particularly conducive to healing. But as a dedicated student in my third year…