The Craft of Medical Storytelling | Anna Reisman, MD

Medicine is filled with stories that illustrate the most beautiful, devastating, hopeful, and consequential moments of life. But how do we capture these moments and transform them into everlasting lessons that guide us on our search for meaning? That's where the art of storytelling comes in. 

Our guest on this episode is Anna Reisman, MD, director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Reisman is not only a physician-writer whose essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and other major outlets. She has also dedicated her career to helping clinicians better reflect and write about their experiences. 

Over the course of our conversation, we discuss how Dr. Reisman went from being an English major in college to working as a physician, her own experiences with burnout and what helped her overcome it, her approach to creative nonfiction writing, concrete ways that writing sharpens the mind of the physician, and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear about: 

2:00 - Dr. Reisman’s path from English major to physician 

3:45 - The scope of Dr. Reisman’s current work 

8:22 - How Dr. Reisman became involved in medical humanities and how she created a writer workshop at Yale Medicine

14:19 - How writing and the medical profession goes hand in hand 

22:49 - The VA Writes reflective writing group 

27:56 - Teaching observational skills to medical students in today’s technology-forward landscape

30:25 - How to approach the writing process if you are new to writing 

45:57 - What Dr. Reisman wishes she would have known at the beginning of her career 

Dr. Anna Reisman can be found on Twitter/X at @annareisman. 

A list of Dr. Reisman’s essays can be found on MuckRack. 

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024