Finding ‘humanness’ amidst the fast-paced Emergency Department (ED) environment
A heartfelt confession and sharing about finding connection, meaning and purpose in the ED
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Stories from the human side of healthcare — told by patients,
caregivers, and the people who work alongside them. Behind every medical
encounter lies a story worth telling.
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the latest from HEART
Rewriting the Story of Aging
There's a story we're used to hearing about aging. A slow, inevitable decline. A journey of loss — of health, independence, identity. This story plays out in quiet corners of hospitals and in loud headlines celebrating the "oldest person to survive" some illness. In clinics,
Keep reading →Not Just Science: What Medical Education Can Learn from the Humanities
There's a particular kind of silence that falls in a consultation room just before a difficult conversation begins. It's the silence that comes when the scan results are not what we hoped. Or when a patient says, "Just tell me what the scan shows,"
Keep reading →Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.
Lessons from the "Hospital Playlist" Drama
Keep reading →If Medicine was a symphony: a day in the ICU
Working in the intensive care unit is very much a team-based approach, and for those familiar with it, a fairly noisy one at that. On any given day, there’s a gamut of activity (and emotions) which the team must take in their stride… Movement 1: The morning adagio
Keep reading →What We Carry
The quiet weight of meaning in Medicine
Keep reading →A question is all it takes
Recently, I was introduced to the concept of “Question Thinking” at a workshop I attended. This was taken from the book “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life” by Marilee Adams, which chronicles how the protagonist discovers this concept and the stark difference it made to his thinking and actions. When
Keep reading →A Doctor’s Reflection: On Gaza, Children, and the Weight of Watching
As doctors, we are trained to preserve life, to relieve suffering, to advocate for the vulnerable. To be the voice for the voiceless and marginalised. But as we scroll through and view the livestreams, images and headlines from Gaza on our mobile phones daily, we cannot help but feel an
Keep reading →The ED Doodlers: Finding Healing Through Creative Expression
Beyond the Clinical Chaos Emergency medicine is defined by urgency—rapid decisions, life-saving interventions, and intense human encounters. But beneath this clinical intensity lies a quieter reality: how those on the frontlines process what they witness and find meaning in their work. For four clinicians at Changi General Hospital&
Keep reading →Belated, But With Heart: A Mother's Day Offering
The echo of Mother’s Day still lingers—soft, tender, and complex. Time rushes forward, but emotions unfold on their own schedule. That’s why we’re sharing this collection now, in the quiet that follows the celebration—when reflection can settle in more gently. Every mother-child relationship tells
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The six corners of HEART
What's Inside
Stories
Reflections from the ward.
Personal essays from clinicians, nurses, allied health. The on-call you remember. The patient who stayed with you.
From the Other Side
Patients & caregivers.
The view from the bed, the bedside, the waiting room. We especially want these — they matter the most.
Verse
Poems.
Lyric, narrative, speculative, silly, mournful. Written on the back of a rounds sheet.
The Things We Carry
Objects, rituals, small charms.
A teddy bear. A box of unopened tea. Write about one object and the story it holds.
Close Looks
Film, art & book reviews.
Anything you want to look at carefully and tell us about.
Scribbles
Short things, fragments.
A paragraph. A sketch. A single sentence on a post-it. The easiest place to start.
An open door
You don't have to be a writer. ↗ anyone, really.
HEART started because medical humanities can sound like a closed club. We don't want to run that room. We want to run the pantry next door, where people come in, make a kopi, and tell you something they haven't been able to say all week.