1st Edition
Finding Meaning in Healthcare Looking Through the Hermeneutic Window
Foreword by Victor Montori
Chapter 1. An Introduction to the Four Domain Model
Robert Clarke and Rupal Shah
Chapter 2. A History of Hermeneutics
Emma Ladds
Chapter 3. Nudging the Status Quo
Emma Ladds, Melissa Sayer and Rupal Shah
Chapter 4. Hermeneutic Approaches in Complex Multimorbidity
Sophie Park and Martina Ann Kelly
Chapter 5. Hermeneutic Approaches in Mental Health and Chronic Pain
Jens Foell and Sami Timimi
Chapter 6. Hermeneutics - An Ethical and Philosophical Perspective
Paquita de Zulueta and John Spicer
Chapter 7. A Hermeneutic Approach to Social Injustice
Austin O’Carroll
Chapter 8. The Human Element in the Age of AI: Balancing Technology and Meaning in Medicine
Marcus Lewis, Sylvie Delacroix, David Fraile Navarro, Richard Lehman
Chapter 9. Hermeneutic Approaches to Leadership
Jo-Anne Johnson and Sanjiv Ahluwalia
Chapter 10. Meaning Making in Frontline Medical Education
John Launer and Louise Younie
Chapter 11. A Hermeneutic Approach to Professionalism and the Link with Practical Wisdom
Sabena Jameel
Chapter 12. Flourishing Spaces
Louise Younie
Chapter 13. Quality Rebellion: Hermeneutics Beyond the Clinical Encounter
Jane Myat and Jane Riddiford
Biography
Rupal Shah is a GP and medical educator in London. She has published widely in the field of medical education, including Fighting for the Soul of General Practice – The Algorithm Will See You Now (2024) and the hermeneutic window series of articles.
Robert Clarke is a retired GP and medical educator who has a longstanding interest in evidence based medicine. He first co-formulated the hermeneutic window to demonstrate that biomedical and humanistic approaches are complementary and has collaborated with Rupal Shah and colleagues in arguing that meaning making is essential in healthcare.
'A timely book which argues that relationship-based care is more important than ever at a time when health care is increasingly fragmented, taskified, deprofessionalised and digitised.'
Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, University of Oxford
'An inspiring collection of essays that eloquently diagnoses the dis-ease afflicting contemporary healthcare. And Finding Meaning in Healthcare goes beyond diagnosis to offer us the cure – an elegant framework which, applied to every consultation and clinical encounter, will transform the experience of both patients and the practitioners who care for them. Essential reading for anyone who has even an inkling that, for all the spectacular advances of medicine in the scientific era, the practice of healthcare has grievously lost its way.'
Dr Phil Whitaker, Medical Editor, New Statesman, and author of What Is a Doctor? – A GP's Prescription for the Future
'Much of general practice and primary care seems to be drowning in anxiety and despondency both for patients and professionals. This book provides some much-needed life rafts!'
Dr Iona Heath, Past President Royal College of General Practitioners
