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.

Most medical encounters are structured as a transaction. When a patient comes in with a medical

problem, they are often hoping that it can be solved by a medical expert,

and both the patient and the doctor will be pleased if a solution can be found for the lower back pain, heartburn, or chronic cough that just won't go away.

But at the heart of a medical encounter is a story.

When a patient comes in with a medical problem, the problem cannot be disentangled from their life's narrative,

and both the patient and the doctor will feel more human if the patient's suffering is approached in the context of the patient's life.

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