A Physician-Engineer and His Patient Stories | Bryant Lin, MD, MEng

Aug 30, 2022

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Technological advancements have enabled us to accomplish medical miracles through novel medical devices, algorithms, and digital tools. At the same time, the exponential entanglement of tech with healthcare has led many clinicians to feel disconnected from the human element of medicine. Here to discuss this conundrum is Bryant Lin, MD, MEng, the director of Medicine and the Muse, the medical humanities program at Stanford Medical School, and a mechanical engineer by training who focuses on medical device development. Dr. Lin also conducts research in Asian population health and is the cofounder of Stanford’s Consultative Medicine Clinic, which evaluates patients with medical mysteries. In today’s episode, Dr. Lin shares his unique perspective at the crossroads of technology and the humanities, and discusses how storytelling can be a powerful instrument to keep physicians grounded in what truly matters for their patients.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How an early interest in engineering led Dr. Lin to medicine - 1:42
A poignant letter Dr. Lin received from one of his long-term aging patients that reaffirms why his medical career is meaningful - 4:10
A discussion of how medical bureaucratization has stolen away much of the human connection that underpins fulfilling medical work - 7:39
How Medicine and the Muse, the medical humanities program at Stanford, helps clinicians connect with the meaning in medicine - 12:40
What Dr. Lin hopes to achieve through teaching medical humanities to future clinicians - 25:45
How storytelling helps healthcare providers better connect with their patients - 27:28
How Dr. Lin integrates storytelling into medical device design, and why it is imperative to not allow technology to distance physicians from their patients - 31:24

Dr. Lin manages the forthcoming digital medical humanities newsletter Panacea Health.

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