Hi, I'm Henry Bear.

And I'm Tyler Johnson.

And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.

Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.

What makes medicine meaningful?

Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?

How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?

What can we learn about the human condition

from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?

In seeking answers to these questions,

we meet with deep thinkers working across health care, from doctors and nurses to patients and health care executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.

Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.

We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.

Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing

can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.

In many ways, emergency rooms are the front lines of health care, serving as the initial point of contact for people experiencing sudden severe health problems or accidents. Yet in other ways, emergency rooms are the last line of defense,

serving as a critical catch-all for vulnerable populations who have nowhere else to go.

Societal issues such as homelessness, mental illness,

domestic violence, and substance use disorder

come into play on a daily basis. How can ER doctors reconcile the tension between the desire

to help others with the frustrating inability to address the underlying injustices?

Joining us to explore this question ability to address the underlying injustices.

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