The Doctor's Art

Say the Important Things: The Work of a Letter Midwife | Bryant Lin, MD and Frish Brandt

Many of us find ourselves awash in a deluge of instant communication. Text messages, emails, and direct messages come and go at a dizzying pace. Against this backdrop of

Medical Training and the Movement to Unionize | Grant Lin, MD

Sometimes established physicians experience a strange kind of amnesia when thinking back on their training, causing them to forget just how challenging it was. Worse, som

In, on, or out of the Loop: Doctors in the Age of AI | Ethan Goh, MD

It wasn’t that many years ago that self-driving cars were the stuff of science fiction. But in what feels like the blink of an eye, driver-less cars now roam the streets

Where Is God in This?: Grappling with a Child’s Cancer | Grant Romoser-Claunch

When a child tragically gets cancer, parents and families often find themselves grasping for ways to make sense of their new reality. It is one thing to know abstractly t

Weight and See: The Ongoing GLP-1 Revolution | Marilyn Tan MD, FACE, FACP

GLP-1s have taken the country by storm. Patients are losing and keeping off weight at levels previously only seen through bariatric surgery. Research trials have shown th

Musical Rounds | Melanie Ambler

The hospital can be a harsh backdrop to many of life’s most pivotal events. Alarms blare at inopportune times, rounding doctors intrude on delicate conversations, and vig

Medicine in the Narrow Place | Jonathan Weinkle MD, FAAP, FACP

Many patients interpret their illness through the lens of their religious tradition. Sometimes this process brings hope, comfort, or growth – but other times it compounds

Immigrant Physicians and American Healthcare | Eram Alam, PhD

The creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 enabled millions of Americans to meaningfully access healthcare for the first time — and dramatically increased demand for d

Healing the Healers | Mary Brandt, MD

The epidemic of physician burnout isn’t just a personal problem. Burned out doctors are more likely to make mistakes, less likely to follow preventative care guidelines,

AI and the Biggest Experiment in Medicine | Robert Wachter, MD

The electronic medical record (EMR) has become an unwelcome interloper in the exam room. Too often, patients find themselves answering questions delivered from behind a m

What is Medicine For? | Devan Stahl, PhD

In recent years, Silicon Valley has imagined for us a new way of life – one where almost anyone can be a twenty or thirty-something-year-old with a supernatural glow, ton

The Promise of Value-Based Medicine | Farzad Mostashari, MD

Electronic Medical Records have transformed the way we practice health care, making patient data readily accessible to health care providers, facilitating collaboration w

Technology, Medicine, and the Erasure of Suffering | A Doctor’s Art Roundtable

Over the past 160 episodes, two themes that have appeared repeatedly feel as relevant and urgent as ever are 1) the pros and dehumanizing cons of technology and 2) approa

Reclaiming Narrative in Medicine | Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA

Most medical encounters are structured as transactions. The patient comes in with a specific complaint, the medical expert identifies a discrete problem, and a specific i

The Physician and His Doctor | Bryant Lin, MD & Heather Wakelee, MD

Dr. Bryant Lin is a primary care physician, educator, and researcher at Stanford University. In 2018, he founded CARE – the Center for Asian Health Research and Education

Joyspan and Aging | Kerry Burnight, MD

Many of us quietly accept the idea that our best self lives somewhere in the past — that youth is the ideal and aging is a slow erosion of who we really are. But what if

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There | Brewer Eberly, MD

Many of the world’s best physicians find it surprisingly difficult to answer the question: Why are you in medicine? In the long, arduous journey of medical training or wi

The Three Dimensions of a Fulfilling Life | Shigehiro Oishi, PhD

We often confuse happiness with the absence of sadness, or a meaningful life with a productive one. The result might be a life that runs smoothly, but feels strangely fla

A Humanist Approach to Chaplaincy | Greg Epstein

When a religious person is isolated from their community, whether due to hospitalization or military service, they can often rely on a chaplain for spiritual support. But

The Morals and Morale of Healthcare Providers | Farr Curlin, MD

Many medical trainees are driven to medicine by their moral or religious principles — only to find that they are expected to check their principles at the patient’s door.