Increasingly, Doctors Are Submitting Poetry to Medical Journals

Los Angeles Times reports on an interesting trend in which doctors are writing poetry to reflect the complexity of their daily workflow and publishing in esteemed medical publications like JAMA. "As doctors established modern-day medical journals in the 19th and 20th centuries, editors and publishers started to include poetry alongside discussions of surgical techniques and treatises on new treatments," notes Stephanie DeMarco. More: 

“In medicine we encounter situations where our patients are at some of the most meaningful moments in life, whether it be attending births or at the end of life,” says Dr. Rafael Campo, poetry editor of JAMA and a physician at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

“I think that’s why JAMA really began to publish poetry, which often does address these single moments in our lives that really illuminate the human condition.”

There’s no shortage of worthy material, says Campo, who writes poetry and has won a National Poetry Series award as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. JAMA receives at least 200 poems every month, and the weekly journal publishes one in each issue. Campo spends eight to 10 hours a week reading submissions.

Most of them are written by doctors, but nurses, other healthcare professionals and patients send in their work as well. No one is keeping records, but editors say submissions are on the rise.

Continue at LA Times.