Welcome page of ISHI's new Remembering the Heart of Medicine website for physicians (http://theheartofmedicine.org/)
ISHI’s long awaited new online community website for physicians, Remembering the Heart of Medicine (www.theheartofmedicine.org), launched this February. The website grew out of an ongoing long-term conversation between the many doctors who have attended ISHI’s programs over the past 20+ years, sharing with us their unmet needs, their dreams and hopes, their ongoing struggle to remain whole and committed to their work, their feeling of aloneness and their love of medicine. It is our hope that this website will offer any physician anywhere in the world an oasis of renewal where they can reconnect and remember the deep meaning of their work despite the stresses and pressures inherent in today’s health care system. As reported by a physician in a recent survey, “I go to the site when I need support, when I have had a particularly difficult period at work, when I need to remember why I am doing this.”
In consultation with hundreds of physicians, we have created a web environment that is interesting, innovative, interactive and healing. The site encourages self-discovery and personal reflection, promotes self-care, enables an in-depth multi-faceted exploration of the meaning of medicine and its lineage, and offers the opportunity for a genuine connection with other physicians worldwide. Website offerings include inspiring collections of poetry, art, stories and articles either about medicine or created by physicians; audio and visual recordings; guided meditations and other innovative and proven exercises for self-care; and nine discussion forums where doctors can connect with likeminded colleagues who are committed to practicing a medicine of human connection and compassionate healing. Ultimately, Remembering the Heart of Medicine offers physicians the opportunity to move beyond the divisiveness of their expertise and speak to each other physicians in new ways about what really matters, to offer one another the understanding and support that only one physician can offer another, and to share in the experience of belonging to a worldwide community of service.
The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness is supported by a generous grant from a foundation that prefers anonymity and many individual donors to whom we are very grateful.
