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Caring for the Patient

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Medical Wisdom and Doctoring

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Abstract

The title of this chapter has been shamelessly, yet respectfully, adapted from the title of a lecture given at Harvard Medical School in 1925, one of a series of late-afternoon sessions for medical students, and subsequently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1927. The title of the lecture and the paper was simply “The Care of the Patient.”2 Peabody’s lectures and writings were later collected and published in 1931, a project underwritten by his classmates from Harvard Medical School. In the preface to this volume, bacteriologist Hans Zinsser wrote of Peabody’s collected works: “Their publication will serve to continue the influence of a voice that American medicine could ill afford to lose - one of clear-headedness, unsentimental idealism and the great wisdom of affectionate optimism.”3 I mentioned Dr. Peabody’s work to one of our residents, who happens to be a graduate of Harvard Medical School; she replied that while in medical school, she was a member of the Francis Weld Peabody Society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR, USA

    Robert B. Taylor

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  1. Robert B. Taylor
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Correspondence to Robert B. Taylor .

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Taylor, R.B. (2010). Caring for the Patient. In: Medical Wisdom and Doctoring. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5521-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5521-0_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5520-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5521-0

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