Featured Essays
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“What patients and families include as part of the story, and what they don’t, tells us so much about how they make meaning and create legacy in the face of illness.”
“I Spy”
by Trisha Paul, MD, MFA — SOPW Board Member
Published October 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association
“What would that be like, I wonder? To hear someone’s story and not automatically begin building a differential, to be blissfully unaware of what signs and symptoms are the stuff of nightmares.”
“The Weight of a Differential”
by Maren Olson, MD, MPH, Med — SOPW Board Member
Published June 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association
“Rituals remind us who we are. When circumstances force us out of our rituals, we need to find out whether we can still be who we are without them.”
“The Ritual of the Table”
by Susan Hata, MD, MFA — SOPW Board Member
Published July 2020 in New England Journal of Medicine
“Listening, by which I mean receiving sound—and word choice—with attention and thoughtful consideration, is our best hope for connection.”
“Listening Lessons”
by Brittany Bettendorf, MD, MFA — SOPW Board Member
Published March 2023 in the Journal of the American Medical Association
“Because I trusted him with my apology, he trusted me to guide him through this diagnosis”
“Notes on Healing After a Missed Diagnosis”
by Elizabeth Fleming, MD — SOPW Board Member
Published October 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association
“As we talk, the man in the photo keeps coming back to me. And I wonder if there is a secret equation to be found hidden in photos like yours. By subtracting the present from the past, might it be possible to quantify the suffering you’ve endured?”
“Snapshots”
by Ben Trappey — SOPW Board Member
Published May 2024 in New England Journal of Medicine