John Launer: Encountering family medicine in China
A few months ago I visited China for the first time. I was there to teach narrative medicine—what health professionals can learn through listening to people’s stories and how much difference this can make to medical care. The field of study originated in the west, but of course storytelling and the need for attentive listening are universal. Not surprisingly, the Chinese are now reinventing it in their own image, integrating elements of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as western approaches to understanding why stories are so central to medicine.1 I gave a lecture at the Beijing Forum, an annual event …
