Medicine Unboxed

Medicine Unboxed
Medicine Unboxed: understanding medicine through the arts and humanities.
Date(s)	October
Begins	2009
Frequency	annual
Location(s)	Cheltenham, UK
Attendance	500
Patron	Jo Shapcott
Website	http://medicineunboxed.com
Curators: Dr. Sam Guglani, Dr. Sean Elyan and Dame Janet Trotter.

Medicine Unboxed is a unique project arising from a clear view that good medicine demands more than scientific and technical expertise; it necessitates ethical judgment, an understanding of human experience, empathy, professionalism and wisdom. Medicine Unboxed is a not-for-profit organisation that has held two international meetings ("Unboxing Medicine" in 2009, and "Stories, Language and Medicine" in 2010) in Cheltenham, UK. The aim of Medicine Unboxed is to explore "understanding medicine through the arts and humanities", and engage the public and front-line National Health Service staff with a view of medicine that is infused and elaborated by the humanities, with a view to promoting dialogue around the goals and values of medicine within society. Contributors to the conferences include artists, writers, the clergy, poets, philosophers, lawyers, linguists, musicians, theatre, ethicists, academics and doctors.

Previous notable contributors include Amateur Transplants, Dannie Abse, Gwyneth Lewis, Jo Shapcott, Frank Harsent, Gabriel Weston and Raymond Tallis. Medicine Unboxed is curated by Dr. Sam Guglani, Consultant Oncologist at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, that supports the organisation along with the Wellcome Foundation. Co-curators are Dr. Sean Elyan and Dame Janet Trotter.

Medicine Unboxed has been widely reported in the medical press including The Lancet ^[1], The British Medical Journal Online^[2] and Lapidus ^[3].

The third event by Medicine Unboxed is "Medicine and Values", which takes place on October 15 2011 at the Parabola Arts Centre in Cheltenham and includes contributions by Lionel Shriver, Jo Shapcott, John Bell, Raymond Tallis, John Carey, Paul Bailey, Michael Arditti, Havi Carel and Tom Isaacs (of The Cure Parkinson's Trust).

Events

• 2009 Unboxing Medicine
• 2010 Stories, Language and Medicine
• 2011 Medicine and Values

References

1. ^ http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)61351-9/fulltext
2. ^ http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2009/08/15/medicine-unboxed-conference-october-19th-2009/
3. ^ http://www.lapidus.org.uk/Nov10.php

External links

• Official website
• Gloucester Hospitals NHS Trust
• Parabola Arts Centre