Medicine at the Crossroads: a Collection of Stories and Conversations to Forge Vision for Health Care

is a collection of essays based a column originally published in the by renowned cardiologist Dr. Michael Attas. It touches on three perspectives - the physician, the patient, and the healthcare system - and addresses some of the most pressing questions in medicine today. Individually, each story of illness, medicine, and healing provides a tiny, fragmented glimpse into the heart of a problem. Collectively, it is Dr. Attas's hope that these stories forge together to reveal a larger narrative truth. The collection originated among scores of bright, inquisitive students in the classrooms of Baylor University, where Dr. Attas founded the Medical Humanities Program. The program was the first of its kind in the United States, and it redefined how students prepare for a career in health care. Dr. Attas and his students explored medicine and the human condition through stories of brokenness and redemption, pain and loss, and joy and despair. But the stories that have emerged from Dr. Attas's 40-year career are not just for students. The conversations are for all of us. Whether you are a physician, patient, or other participant in the healthcare system, may you be bold enough, humble enough, and vulnerable enough to listen to these stories--and to the stories of those around you--with wonder and awe. While this collection may offer some solutions with "fear and trembling," it does not dare claim to have all the answers. The purpose is simply to start conversations. So, let us take a collective breath and examine our personal feelings and expectations of medicine. May we each glimpse the possibilities and discover our own fresh, creative solutions. Ultimately, the purpose of is to help us find our way to compassionate, humane health care for all. Together, may we find healing--for ourselves, our loved ones, and our system. - United States Ambassador Lyndon L. Olson, Jr. - Joel T. Allison, FACHE, Retired CEO, Baylor Scott and White Health; Senior Advisor, Robbins Institute for Health Policy and Leadership - Kerry Egan MDiv, - Lauren Barron, MD, Director, Medical Humanities Program, Baylor University