Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Lewis Thomas

  • Dr. Fritz Kahn and medical infographics

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “If I were…an intern just getting ready to begin, I would be apprehensive that my real job, caring for sick people, might soon be taken away, leaving me with the quite different occupation of looking after machines.” — Lewis Thomas, MD, 1983 Dr. Fritz Kahn (1888–1968), a Berlin gynecologist, realized that society’s…

  • Everyone is too busy

    Everyone, even the visitors, seems pressed for time. . . . The Hippocratic adage, “Art is life long, Life is short” is speeded up to a blur. Everyone is too busy, urgently doing something else, and there is no longer enough time for the old meditative, speculative ward rounds or the amiable conversations at bedside.…