Osler's bedside library revisited--books for the 21st century -- Pai and Gursahani 331 (7530): 1482 -- BMJ

Osler's bedside library revisited--books for the 21st century -- Pai and Gursahani 331 (7530): 1482 -- BMJ: "Osler's bedside library revisited�books for the 21st century
Medical education is, in many ways, incomplete. Although we are taught about the science of medicine, most medical school curriculums lack formal teaching on the humanity of medicine. Ethics, history, and philosophy are not taught formally in many schools. William Osler was one of the earliest to realise this, and in 1904 he proposed a bedside library for medical students that consisted of the Old and New Testaments, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Thomas Browne's Religio Medici, Don Quixote, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes's 'breakfast table' series. "
Osler’s bedside library for the 21st century
The full list of books (numbers in brackets are the numbers of doctors in the sample who chose that book or author):
1. William Shakespeare, Complete Works (11)
2. William Osler, Aequanimitas (8); also Osler’s A Way of Life (1), R E Verney’s The Student Life: The Philosophy of Sir William Osler (1), and Charles S Bryan’s Osler: Inspirations from a Great Physician (2)
3. A J Cronin, The Citadel (8); also Adventures in Two Worlds (2), Adventures of a Black Bag (1), The Keys of the Kingdom (1)
4. Harvey Cushing, The Life of Sir William Osler (7); also Michael Bliss, William Osler: A Life in Medicine
5. The Bible or other religious texts (6)
6. Norman Cousins, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (5) or The Healing Heart (1)
7. Lewis Thomas (5), The Lives of a Cell or The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher
8. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (4)
9. Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly (4)
10. Axel Munthe, Story of San Michele (4)
11. Ivan Illich, Medical Nemesis (4)
12. Roald Dahl, Collected Short Stories (4)

Also, the following books, selected only by Indians, should be considered essential for Indian medical students:
Bhagavad Gita (6)
Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (6) or Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (1)
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha (4)
Sanjay A Pai’s list:
Norman Cousins, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient
Arthur Hailey, The Final Diagnosis
Maurice B Strauss, Familiar Medical Quotations
A J Cronin, The Citadel
A J Cronin, Adventures in Two Worlds
Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher
Palgrave’s Golden Treasury
Richard Selzer, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery
Charles S Bryan, Osler: Inspirations from a Great Physician, or R E Verney, The Student Life: The Philosophy of Sir William Osler
Peter Medawar, Advice to a Young Scientist
Stephen Lock, John Last, and George Dunea (eds), The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine (to which SAP is a contributor)
Joseph Murray, Surgery of the Soul: Reflections on a Curious Career
R D Gursahani’s list:
Martha Weinman Lear, Heartsounds
A J Cronin, The Citadel
Arthur Hailey, The Final Diagnosis
Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner
Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi

Medicine: the prosperity of virtue

The Lancet
Many doctors in Britain today feel under siege. They are told that the services they offer do not meet the standards demanded by the public. They are told that they are not delivering for patients. They are told that other groups can do what they do as well as they can or perhaps even better (prescribing, for example). They are told that they must embrace new providers in healthcare because that is the only way to break the restrictive practices they have been imposing for decades.1 They are told that a new raft of medical regulation is needed to prevent the crimes of Harold Shipman and the negligence of others from happening again.

The attitude of the state towards doctors has never been more critical. It has led to panic at some medical institutions with occasionally disastrous consequences.2,3 This dimming of the profession's flame will be welcomed by critics of professional power. But the endemic demoralisation of doctors today is creating a cold front of danger that threatens the public's health.

Professionalism is medicine's most precious commodity. Professionalism is not some old-fashioned luxury enjoyed by a privileged elite. It is central to the improvement of health. Yet professionalism is currently jeopardised by a political culture that is hostile to any source of power that is seen as competitive with government. Doctors have been largely outmanoeuvred by a far more adaptable and intelligently strategic political class. For too long they have clung to an idea of professionalism that has included ancient concepts such as autonomy, mastery, and bounded knowledge. These elements of an anachronistic professionalism are now obsolete. Doctors should see the demise of these outmoded ideas as an opportunity for redefining their purpose in a radically different era./.../

Royal College of Physicians | Doctors in society - Medical professionalism in a changing world

Royal College of Physicians | Doctors in society - Medical professionalism in a changing world
Download the technical supplement from the link below:

Main report (399, PDF)
Technical supplement (742k, PDF)

Patients are at the heart of new medical professionalism -- Cole 331 (7529):

Patients are at the heart of new medical professionalism -- Cole 331 (7529): 1355 Data Supplement - Longer version -- BMJ: "A report from the Royal College of Physicians on medical professionalism highlights a 'serious failure' in doctors' leadership and calls for a central forum to give the profession a single united voice.
The report also proposes a new definition of medical professionalism that focuses on partnership with patients and with other disciplines while discarding the concepts of autonomy, privilege, and self regulation.
The wide ranging working party report, Doctors in Society: Medical Professionalism in a Changing World, comes at a time when the profession is under unprecedented scrutiny as a result of medical scandals, changing working practices, and increased public expectations."/.../