STAT

Opinion: Stories are the currency of medicine

As a doctor, it's the stories that keep me going. Illness can't exist without narrative, and stories are the currency of medicine.
Source: JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

What if I told you that, as your doctor, I’d rather listen to your memoir than to your lungs? Or that while I find the sound of a beating heart a marvel to behold, I’m more interested in hearing the jazz song that you wrote or talking about the words tattooed on your left wrist. What if I asked not only about your symptoms, but also about your life, your narrative, and the story behind

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