Doctor, Doctor: Conversations About Medicine

Following the bubonic plague of the 14th century, which decimated two thirds of Europe's population, the Roman Catholic Church responded with a call for the articulation of an ars moriendi, or art of dying, that could guide laypersons in their preparation for death. The body of literature that resulted shaped both religious and secular practices in the West for hundreds of years. But by the middle of the 20th century, technology's ability to delay the moment of death fostered a "medicalized" death. Physicians Lydia Dugdale and Thomas Duffy discuss what this has meant for individuals in the current age, and how medicine might better prepare patients and their families for their final hours.

Irwin M. Braverman, MD ’55, is the co-creator of Yale School of Medicine's Workshop on Observational Skills, which has been offered since the late 1990s. Jacqueline Dolev, MD ’01, was one of the first students in the course, and wrote her medical school thesis on it. Fifteen years later, the workshop has been offered at more than two dozen medical schools – and Scotland Yard.