A Physician-Engineer and His Patient Stories (with Dr. Bryant Lin)

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Technological advancements have enabled us to accomplish medical miracles through novel medical devices, algorithms, and digital tools. At the same time, the exponential entanglement of tech with healthcare has led many clinicians to feel disconnected from the human element of medicine. Here to discuss this conundrum is Dr. Bryant Lin, the director of Medicine and the Muse, the medical humanities program at Stanford Medical School, and a mechanical engineer by training who focuses on medical device development. Dr. Lin also conducts research in Asian population health and is the cofounder of Stanford’s Consultative Medicine Clinic, which evaluates patients with medical mysteries. In today’s episode, Dr. Lin shares his unique perspective at the crossroads of technology and the humanities, and discusses how storytelling can be a powerful instrument to keep physicians grounded in what truly matters for their patients.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How an early interest in engineering led Dr. Lin to medicine - 1:42
A poignant letter Dr. Lin received from one of his long-term aging patients that reaffirms why his medical career is meaningful - 4:10
A discussion of how medical bureaucratization has stolen away much of the human connection that underpins fulfilling medical work - 7:39
How Medicine and the Muse, the medical humanities program at Stanford, helps clinicians connect with the meaning in medicine - 12:40
What Dr. Lin hopes to achieve through teaching medical humanities to future clinicians - 25:45
How storytelling helps healthcare providers better connect with their patients - 27:28
How Dr. Lin integrates storytelling into medical device design, and why it is imperative to not allow technology to distance physicians from their patients - 31:24

Dr. Lin manages the forthcoming digital medical humanities newsletter Panacea Health.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.4	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:04.8	And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.9	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.2	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?
0:23.1	What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare,
0:33.1	from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a career's worth of harder and wisdom.
0:40.2	Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking,
0:45.6	amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.3	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.9	Enjoy us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.
1:03.4	Our guest today is Dr. Bryant Lynn, who is not only the director of the Medical Humanities program at Stanford Medical School,
1:10.4	but is an engineer by training who is involved in medical device development.
1:14.8	In addition, he does research in Asian population health and founded Stanford's consultative medicine clinic,
1:21.6	which evaluates patients with medical mysteries.
1:24.4	In today's episode, he joins us to discuss his journey in medicine and share touching stories that illustrate his deep interest in the human connections that underlie all of his diverse areas of interest.
1:34.4	Bryant, welcome to the show, and thanks for being here.
1:38.1	Thanks for having me.
1:39.1	This is really fantastic to be on your podcast.
1:41.9	As we mentioned in your introduction, your resume is packed with all sorts of different kinds of activities.
	...

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