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 healthcare 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.

Imagine practicing medicine not within the sterile confines of a hospital, but in the

unpredictable world of city streets and shelters, where every patient encounter challenges

conventional notions of care, empathy, and human dignity. Today, we explore this reality

through the extraordinary journey of Dr. Jim O'Connell, whose groundbreaking work with Boston's

homeless population has profoundly reshaped health care for society's most marginalized individuals.

Dr. O'Connell currently serves as the president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program,

and is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

After earning his medical degree from Harvard University and completing his residency,

he began

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