Narrative Matters, the personal essay section of Health Affairs, publishes firsthand stories that explore the personal, ethical, and moral issues of delivering or receiving health care—and that carry a health policy message within them.  The essays are popular with the journal’s readers (many say that Narrative Matters is what they turn to first), and they [...]

Narrative Matters recently brought together 80 writers, journalists, and academics to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of Narrative Matters.  There was much to celebrate: over 150 Narratives published in Health Affairs that covered a spectrum of human stories set in the increasingly institutionalized health care system.  We came to celebrate the power of stories and storytelling in the [...]

Patients with serious or advanced illnesses would be given more control over their care by language in health reform legislation passed by three House committees that would pay physicians, nurse practitioners, and other providers for counseling Medicare beneficiaries about advance planning for future care decisions.
That was the unanimous opinion expressed by three respected geriatricians at [...]

Tomorrow’s Health Affairs briefing, “Fact Versus Fiction: Key Issues In Health Reform,” will be covered live on Twitter. Posts from Health Affairs deputy editor Sarah Dine will appear in real time on the Twitter “channel” #healthreform with important points and content from the event.
You can follow the discussion on Twitter by searching on “#healthreform.” If you have a Twitter account, you [...]

Reforming the way health care is paid for and delivered in the United States is serious business. It deserves an equally serious discussion
rising above partisanship and hot air. 
Join Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal,
for a special conference on Key Issues in Health Reform: Fact vs. Fiction.
WHEN: Thursday August 20, 2009 – 8:30 am [...]

Last year Congress passed legislation prohibiting group health plans that provide mental health coverage from imposing stricter limits on mental health treatment than for other medical or surgical care. This marked a historical milestone for mental health care, burying the unscientific distinction between “mental” and “physical” illness. But although progress has been made in mental [...]

How does a health care system learn about neglected and abused children—the ones who’ve fallen through the cracks—so they can be helped? That was the story and exploration in a Narrative Matters essay by Janette Kurie titled “Where’s David?”
Kurie recently read an excerpt from her essay on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” In it she tells a [...]

If you listen to National Public Radio’s (NPR) “All Things Considered” on Saturday afternoons, recently you heard the voice of Narrative Matters author Nataly Kelly. Her on-air commentary about being a medical interpreter was excerpted from her Narrative Matters essay in the November/December 2008 issue of Health Affairs. For a story of a medical tragedy [...]

Editor’s Note: The November-December issue of Health Affairs contains essays by a physician and a medical interpreter on the challenges and perils of navigating language gaps between medical providers and patients in the absence of a trained medical interpreter. The essays appear in the journal’s “Narrative Matters” section, which is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The post [...]

The worlds of U.S. and global health lost several important people this month: Allan Rosenfield, Paul Rogers, and Michelle Mayer. Their lives underscore the importance of improving health and health care worldwide — and the many ways there are to leave a legacy behind.
Allan Rosenfield, M.D., died Oct. 12 at age 75 from complications of [...]

Sooner or later, we are all patients. This past weekend a group of journalists, doctors, advocates, health center leaders, technology experts, professors, and – yes – patients, gathered at Airlie House in Virginia to share stories and insights along the journey to improve health and health care. The small conference, “Patients and Policy Narratives: The [...]

Sometimes desperation overrides a focus on insurance information. Health Affairs Deputy Editor Philip Musgrove shared his tale of just such an experience on NPR this week. The radio segment was excerpted from an essay originally published in the Narrative Matters section of Health Affairs.
The current issue of Health Affairs features Narrative Matters essays by Chinese [...]

PAIN
(Chicago, June 19 – June 21) I sit down at a circular table in the high-ceilinged meeting room and conversationally ask the two women already there what brought them to this three-day conference. The first replies that she had a daughter die from a medical mistake. The other, a nurse, lost a son to medical [...]

Editor’s Note: Today, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) kicks off a series of posts on Jon Gabel’s article “Where Do I Send Thee? Does Physician-Ownership Affect Referral Patterns To Ambulatory Surgical Centers?,” published March 18 on the Health Affairs Web site. The series will also feature posts from Jerry Cromwell and Chris Cassel.
To paraphrase the [...]

As many families gather for Thanksgiving this week, Health Affairs Blog would like to take this opportunity to highlight the poignant new Narrative Matters’ essay “Dad’s Legacy” [free access] in the November/December 2007 issue of Health Affairs.
 
“If a picture is worth one thousand words, a good story is worth many columns of statistics,” wrote the [...]

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part blog by several of the 2006-2007 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellows. Part one, which ran yesterday, describes the extent to which these international scholars felt able to make meaningful choices in their interactions with the American health care system. In part two below, the authors propose changes [...]

Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part blog by several of the 2006-2007 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellows. The post below describes the extent to which these international scholars felt able to make meaningful choices in their interactions with the American health care system. In part two of their blog, which will appear on [...]

The Johns Hopkins University Press has just published Narrative Matters: The Power of the Personal Essay in Health Policy, an anthology of articles from the popular Narrative Matters section of Health Affairs. I can’t review the book in good conscience since, along with my colleagues Ellen Ficklen and Kyna Rubin, I have served as editor [...]