Physicians Who Write
A google search reveals 53 physician writers. Some are probably familiar to you: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anton Chekhov, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, Michael Crichton, Khaled Hosseini—likely more recognizable as authors than physicians. Holmes (1809-1894) founded The Atlantic Monthly and served as a professor at Dartmouth and dean of Harvard Medical School. He also railed against the vagaries of Homeopathy.
Conan Doyle (1859-1930) studied medicine in Edinburgh and served as a ship surgeon before entering practice in England. When his practice struggled, he began writing fiction while he waited for patients. He then tried ophthalmology in Vienna, but that failed as well.
Stein (1874—1946) entered Johns Hopkins Medical School, but grew bored and dropped out in her fourth year.
Williams (1883-1963) practiced medicine (internal medicine and pediatrics) in Rutherford New Jersey for 40 years, writing poems on blank prescriptions between patient visits.
Percy (1916–1990), who I read in a college English course, graduated from Columbia and contracted tuberculosis. During his convalescence he began writing and eventually won a National Book Award for The Moviegoer.
Crichton (1941-2008) began writing Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain at Harvard and never pursued a license to practice.
Hosseini (1965--) thought the practice of medicine was like an arranged marriage and gave it up a year and a half after the release of The Kite Runner.
As the recipients of our patients’ stories we are witness to and often moved by the best and worst of the human condition. Most inspiring for me is the resiliency, against the odds, odds I’d hate to face myself; I have seen patients summon an inner grit to keep stepping forward.You too have likely been inspired by physicians who reflect eloquently on the practice of medicine: Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) who served as the dean of Yale and the New York University Schools of Medicine and president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute while he wrote essays. Yale Surgeon Richard Selzer (1928-2016) who I had the pleasure of scrubbing in with as a medical student shortly after he returned from an international mission trip in the mountains of Peru.
Harvard Surgeon Atul Gawande, Internal Med and infectious disease specialist Abraham Verghese, and internist Rita Charon who inaugurated Narrative medicine curriculum at Columbia. I wrote my own reflections on doctoring, Confessions of a Sin Eater.Because of the doctor-patient contract, physicians are not allowed to tell patient stories unless we have written permission or disguise the identifiable details. As a result fiction is a wonderful venue.
I’d like to turn to Family Medicine fiction writers. There do not seem to be many. Don Kollisch of New Hampshire wrote a wonderful story about a farmer that I included in the anthology The Country Doctor Revisited: A 21st Century Reader.
Dr. Michael Fine, who I featured in an early post is working on a novel based in Liberia. If you know of others, please let me know.In the past year
I met Arizona family physician Sandra Miller virtually. She writes adventure novels that take place in the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National parks. Sandra practiced in the Grand Canyon medical clinic early in her career and has trained many physicians who have done a tour there. Read her recent interview with the Voyage Phoenix. Dr. Abby Wilmore, her thoughtful, but risk-taking family physician protagonist, is very human and fun to follow. Dr. Miller likes showing how doctors think, how they worry about their patients and their decisions, how they deal with good and bad outcomes and she does that well. Check her out, she’s a good writer and entertaining read. https://www.skepticalword.com/
I have my own international adventure series featuring another family physician, Ann McLannly, who finds herself in the middle of humanitarian crises that did not receive much media attention when they occurred. Family medicine provides a fertile field of inspiration for stories and writing is a wonderful way to explore the deeper themes of life’s challenges and paradoxes.As a writer, medical students and residents approach me for help moved to write and reflect on the privileged position we share as healers—sitting on the sidelines of people’s lives. Over the past years I’ve helped numerous medical students refine their musings some of which we published in Becoming a Doctor: Reflections.
Another wonderful venue for health care musings is led by family physician Paul Gross who practices in New York City. He and his wife edit the weekly e-zine Pulse voices from the heart of medicine. Dr. Gross also facilitates writing seminars at many family medicine meetings. This year Pulse celebrates 10 years of giving voice to the very personal story of health.Treat yourself and become a subscriber. It’s free. https://pulsevoices.org/Happy reading . . .