November 19, 2013
From Anton Chekhov in the 19th century to Vincent Lam, a Toronto ER doctor who won the Giller Prize in 2006 for his first short story collection, physicians throughout the ages have written more than prescriptions and case histories. Yet while Chekhov started writing to pay the bills, doctors today are looking at literature as a way to improve the health care system for patients and clinicians alike. This is narrative medicine, medicine practiced with the ability to recognize and interpret patients� stories of illness which can be told in gestures and silences, as well as in words. Just as no novel is a list of of plot points and characters� emotions, no patient summarizes their symptoms and histories in one neat paragraph. Physicians must work as readers to infer meaning from patients� words, or lack thereof, from their punctuation, style and syntax, before they can begin to treat them.
This week, Sara spoke with Dr. Rita Charon (Columbia University), who pioneered the narrative medicine movement, Dr. Allan Peterkin (University of Toronto), who co-founded the Ars Medica journal, and Marisa Webster and Sarah Fraser, two Dalhousie medical students who have won awards for their creative writing. If you are interested in submitting to Ars Medica, please visit ars-medica.ca/submissions.
You can download the November 19, 2013 episode or stream it in the player below:This week, Sara spoke with Dr. Rita Charon (Columbia University), who pioneered the narrative medicine movement, Dr. Allan Peterkin (University of Toronto), who co-founded the Ars Medica journal, and Marisa Webster and Sarah Fraser, two Dalhousie medical students who have won awards for their creative writing. If you are interested in submitting to Ars Medica, please visit ars-medica.ca/submissions.
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