On The Brain

This essay describes a time the author counseled a dying patient and his wife about the best next steps for his care in the hospital.

This essay describes how a neurologist’s experience with a cerebrospinal fluid leak led to newfound gratitude for their own treating physicians and nurses and insight into patients’ experiences.

This essay describes the author’s experience with having a stroke.

This essay describes the author’s chronic depression and despair during residency, which led to a suicide attempt.

This essay describes the author’s experience with craniotomy and recovery from the procedure.

This essay describes the author’s symptom progression and eventual diagnosis of cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This essay describes the pros and cons of using a patient portal during a parent’s illness and subsequent death.

This essay describes the author’s experience of developing autoimmune encephalitis during her third year of residency and being a physician who has also been a patient.

This essay discusses how to best preserve the mutual benefits of long-term clinician-patient relationships within a team-based care model.

This essay describes the decisions an emergency physician and a palliative care researcher was faced with after his father had an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

This essay discusses the journey of a surgical oncologist as she navigates her father’s diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as a physician and daughter in the face of evolving health care value.

This essay discusses the struggles of family caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This essay calls into question the way we think and talk about the deeply personal experiences of individuals undergoing genetic and prenatal testing.

This essay discusses the author’s experience with stuttering as a medical student and how injustices surrounding speech fluency affect minoritized individuals.

This essay describes the author’s experience of not being able to visit and advocate for her mother in the intensive care unit during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

This essay discusses the discrimination physicians with disabilities face in their own work environment and how this discrimination reflects a deeper lack of compassion and understanding in the field.

This essay describes the author’s experience caring for his elderly parents and offers tips to others who are or will be caring for their parents as they age.

This essay reflects on the author’s experiences as a woman in the male-dominated field of biomedical research and her hopes for the future of this field.

This article describes a patient’s experience choosing medical aid in dying after living with an untreatable terminal illness.

This essay describes the author’s experience with transient global amnesia and the treatment he received as a patient.