Medical Humanities: the Rx for Uncertainty? Renowned physician author Danielle Ofri makes the case for how the humanities offer not only well-being for physicians but also make us better doctors through growing wisdom from knowledge and building creativity, all of which help us embrace the inherent uncertainty in medicine.
Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore Op ed about the life and death of Dr. Susan Moore, a black family physician who died of COVID in December, after recording a post relating her racist treatment while a patient.
PPE-clad doctor comforts lonely elderly covid 19 patient The doctor's new role: family member, hug, hand...heartbreaking photo shows PPE-clad doctor comforting lonely, elderly covid-19 patient
Reentry This is a NEJM perspective piece written by a palliative care doctor in NYC in light of the COVID pandemic. A snippet: "From March to June 2020, I led a palliative care team embedded in our hospital’s Covid ICU. We spoke to countless families over the phone and by Zoom calls to tell them their loved ones were critically ill, getting sicker, and eventually, dying. When the prognosis seemed dire, we recommended transitioning to comfort-focused care. And in patients’ final hours and days, we held iPads at their bedsides so that family members around the world could say goodbye."
Can Your Child’s Identity Shape Yours? by Andrew Solomon Listen to Andrew Soloman’s ideas about how one can find profound meaning in differences and how they can shape one’s identity. “As long as you experience your condition as an illness, it’s your prison. Once you experience it as an identity it’s the source of your freedom.”
We Need a Heroic Narrative for Death by Amanda Bennett A powerful talk arguing that having hope for a happy ending of a loved one’s life does not warrant a diagnosis of “denial.” A call to match the heroic narratives we have in life with a heroic narrative for death.
Culture of Dying - Justin Ritchie and Seth Moser-Katz interview Stephen Jenkinson Resilience.org interviews Stephen Jackson about our cultural difficulty with death and how to overcome it.
"Erasing Death" Explores the Science of Resuscitation by Sam Parnia, M.D. Dr. Sam Parnia, a critical care doctor and director of resuscitation research at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine, studies what people experience between the moment that their heart stops beating and after they have been resuscitated.