Humanism in Surgery : Reflective Dialogue across Arts, Humanities and Health Sciences

Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine have been increasingly relevant in view of the challenges that new health technologies and the digital world pose to truly person-centered healthcare. By Narrative Medicine we understand the practice of healthcare with narrative skills that allow professionals to recognize the suffering of others and of themselves; be able to interpret verbal and non-verbal narratives of illness; and be motivated to act in a way that respects the Person of the Patient and of the Professional. Surgery, like other medical specialties, requires space for reflection and debate on the meaning of humanism and its impact on the quality of care. This requirement is more pressing in this area, because it has escaped inquiry by Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine. We believe that this is due to the nature of the surgical activity, carried out in an enclosed place, characterized by the use of sophisticated technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence, and inaccessible to patients' relatives. In addition, the patients' own expectations about surgery reinforce the technological and highly specialized nature of this area, often marked by the neglect of the relational context, with clear prejudice to the parties involved and the activity itself. Although this gap has been identified, there has been no space for reflection on the humanization of care in surgery.

This book is, therefore, innovative, precisely because it responds to the previously mentioned shortcomings, offering its readers the opportunity to reflect on Humanism in Surgery.

Jonathan McFarland currently works as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Universitat de Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. With a background in the Humanities - more than 20 years been working in the field of Medical English, he is a member of ASME ( Association for the Study of Medical Education). He is also a Committee member of EUNAMES ( European Narrative Medicine Society), and a member of the honorary committee of the Gimbernat Surgical Society, as well as a member of ASOMEGA ( Association of Galician Doctors). He has been the lay member for COMETA ( Ethics Committee for Primary Health Care for Mallorca). He is also co-editor of a forthcoming series for Springer entitled, New Paradigms in Healthcare. The first book in the series will be coming out very soon. He is the President of The Doctor as a Humanist, which is an International organization of students, scholars, educators and practitioners dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of the humanities and humanism in medicine and healthcare around the world.

Susana Magalhães, PhD in Bioethics by the Portuguese Catholic University, is Lecturer at University Fernando Pessoa and the Head of the Unit for Responsible Conduct in Research at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health of the University of Porto (i3S). Her research interests are Narrative Medicine and Research Ethics/Integrity. She is a Certified Virt2UETrainer and member of the steering group of the Portuguese Reproducibility Network. Coordinator of a Group of Study and Reflection on Narrative Medicine (Grupo de Estudos e Reflexão em Medicina Narrativa  - GERMEN) and member of the European Society of Narrative Medicine (EUNAMES). 

Dr. Jacek Mostwin is a professor of urology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is an  internationally recognized expert in pelvic anatomy, physiology and surgery for  men and women. Previous research has concentrated in smooth muscle physiology in bladder outlet obstruction and pathophysiology and treatment of urinary incontinence. He was formerly co-chairman of the hospital ethics committee and co-director of the Medical School’s Horizontal Strand in Ethics and Professionalism. He was formerly medical director for the Federal Association’s  annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Order of Malta. He  is a member of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes. His current research focuses on the ethics and human dimensions of illness and medicine. Dr. Mostwin authored 7 Keys to Treating Prostate Cancer and Managing Urinary Incontinence After Prostate Cancer Surgery and co-authored Choosing the Right Treatment for Prostate Cancer: Surgical Options and A Woman's Guide to Urinary Incontinence―all Johns Hopkins Medicine publications.

Dr Rene Genadry is a former Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, Gynecology and Urology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine where he helped develop a fellowship in URPS and is helping develop a collaborative project in international education. He was on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins School Of Medicine where, during his tenure, he initiated the Houston Everett Memorial Course in Urogynecology and Pelvic floor Dysfunction that was held yearly for over 25 years. He was also active in the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics.  

He has been involved in various missions related to obstetric fistula and pelvic floor dysfunction with the International Organization for Women and Development and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative among others. He has codirected a seminar on the prevention and treatment of Obstetric fistula sponsored by the WHO, UNFPA and FIGO at The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he held a joint appointment. He remains active in the International Obstetric Fistula Working Group, a UNPFA sponsored group working towards the elimination of Obstetric Fistulas worldwide.