Guest Post: Medicine and Poetry, Not so Far Apart after All

By Douglas Landon Hester, an anesthesiologist whose academic work focuses on airway management and resident education

I suspect I’m a poet and a physician for the same reasons. In both, small details define major issues. In both, precision matters. In both, the right word in the right way can help someone. In both, I believe I’m using talents as a steward. In both, there is a wonderful tension between science and art.

In both, relationships are ultimately the bottom line. Whether I am offering a specific drug or procedure or I am trying to connect with a reader I have never met, it is the common humanity between us that allows me to be a physician and a poet.

Medicine and poetry are, for me, about people. I’m blessed to do both.