6 Poetry, medicine and the hippocrates prize. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hulse, Michael; Singer, Donald
• Is Part Of: Postgraduate medical journal. Volume 94(2018)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A3
• Page End: A3
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Medicine -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2018-fpm.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-5473

Abstract

Abstract : Why should health professionals be interested in poetry? Patients and their families and carers are accustomed to the use of music and painting in therapy and recent years have seen remarkable growth in the use of poetry for therapeutic purposes. Poetry now features in the curriculum for training health professionals, including doctors, nurses and midwives, in many academic centres in Europe, North America and other continents. The concept is not new. Poetry was used to treat abnormal mood by the Greek doctor Soranus two thousand years ago. 1 Renewed interest in poetry as therapy during the 20th-century has inspired a growing body of poetry written about serious medical disorders, including psychiatric problems, HIV/AIDS and cancers. 1 For almost a decade the Hippocrates Initiative has been exploring the relations between the disciplines of poetry and medicine, both through scholarly inquiry at its annual international symposium and creatively through the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, which over the years has attracted entries from some seventy countries worldwide. During this session on poetry and medicine, we shall hear readings from the Hippcrates Prize by previous winners Jane Draycott and Wendy French. We take great pleasure in acknowledging the generous support of the UK's Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (for the health professional and open categories of the Hippocrates Prize) and of UK healthy heart charity the Cardiovascular Research Trust (for the young poets' award). Judges have included eminent poets such as Jorie Graham, Gwyneth Lewis, Philip Gross, Jo Shapcott and the late Dannie Abse, leading figures from the medical profession such as Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, Professor Steve Field, Dr. Owen Lewis and Professor Femi Oyebode, and prominent people from public life, among them James Naughtie, Robert Francis QC, Martha Kearney, Neal Baer and Mark Lawson. There were entries from thirty-seven countries on five continents for this year's prizes in the open category, the health professional category, and the young poets category. These awards were announced on 11 May at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago following the Hippocrates international symposium on poetry and medicine, hosted this year by the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. The 10th annual Hippocrates prizes will be awarded on 17th May 2019 at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, with American-Mexican poet and PEN international President Jennifer Clement judging the international Open and Health Professional awards (closing date 14th February 2019) and New Zealand poet Elizabeth Smither judging the young poet awards (closing date 1 st March 2019). To find out more about the Hippocrates Prize, Hippocrates Press publications, and the Hippocrates Society, please visit www.hippocrates-poetry.org. Reference: Singer DRJ, Hulse MW. Poetry, medicine, and the 2018 international Hippocrates Prize. Lancet. 2010March 20;375(9719):976–7.