About

Its roots, however, go back further—to a 19th-century American literature course, where we, two college friends, found ourselves pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed reading Walt Whitman and other writers from the period. When the course ended, we wanted a way to continue practicing that kind of close, narrative attention to people's lives. We turned toward medicine, a field we were both interested in, and began thinking about how storytelling might offer a more personal view of healthcare.

As we paid attention to conversations online and around us, we noticed how often healthcare professionals were met with distrust. They were sometimes described as self-serving, uncaring, or even predatory. There are certainly problems in healthcare that deserve criticism, but we also felt these conversations could reduce the people working within the system to a single, negative image. They left little room for the uncertainty, compassion, difficult decisions, and humor that shape their everyday lives.

MedMoments is meant to make room for those stories. We sit down with healthcare workers and ask about a moment they still carry with them: a patient they remember, a small act of kindness, a difficult decision, or an experience that changed how they see their work. With their permission, we translate these conversations into written stories and short videos, trying to capture each moment with language while keeping their voices intact. We also take seriously the privacy of patients and anyone else involved.

This is not a project about putting healthcare professionals on pedestals or ignoring the problems within medicine. It is about seeing them as people. We hope MedMoments can offer a fuller and more honest picture of healthcare.