This year, I finally got around to attending the dotMD conference. This annual meeting is organised by Dr Ronan Kavanagh, a consultant rheumatologist, Dr Alan Coss, a consultant gastroenterologist, and Dr Muiris Houston, a general practitioner and Irish Times columnist. Since its inception in 2012, the self-styled “festival of medical curiosity” has grown steadily in popularity such that, this year, it was held over two days (September 13-14) for the first time. Moreover, having usually taken place in Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre, this year’s conference was hosted at the Bailey Allen Hall in NUI Galway. And it certainly did not disappoint. An exploration of medical practice in the context of technology, the arts and the humanities, its central themes were empathy, curiosity and reflection in an effort to combat cynicism, isolation, burnout and boredom among professionals. 

Day one kicked off with Dr Brian Goldman, author of The Secret Language of Doctors, who gave a talk on kindness in medicine in the context of mounting daily challenges. He was followed by Dr Caroline Elton, author of Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors, who discussed patient-centred care and argued that distress and burnout in medicine stem largely from the erosion of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr Bryan Vartabedian, a director of community medicine in Texas, further asserted that, to avoid dehumanising the doctor-patient interaction, technology needs to be used appropriately in healthcare. He asked whether we are currently over-hyping technology and under-hyping the human factor, and suggested that our current obsession with technology is probably just a phase – although the fundamental role of the physician is likely to be redefined in the coming decades. Finally, Dr Alice Kirby, a healthcare strategy consultant, spoke about the virtual absence in healthcare of service and organisational design, and contrasted this with the efforts that usually go into product design. 

The afternoon session got off to a musical start with a piano performance by Una Keane, whereupon Dr Mike Farquhar, consultant sleep specialist, spoke about the stages of sleep and where it can all go wrong. The theme then reverted to culture, as Alexa Miller, artist-turned-medical educator, drew a parallel between the visual arts and our ability to cope with diagnostic uncertainty, while Prof Paul Haidet, a medical education researcher from Penn State, contrasted two popular jazz piano trios of the early 1960s as a metaphor for the different ways in which professional teams work.

Day two involved numerous standing ovations. It began with the theme of storytelling in medicine, with compelling and often-moving talks by author Colum McCann, gastroenterologist Dr Anthony O’Connor, and GPs Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon and Dr Austin O’Carroll. Dr Rachel Clarke – author of Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor’s Story – chaired a discussion with memoirists Sinead Gleeson and Arnold Thomas Fanning, both of whom gave thought-provoking descriptions of their personal experiences of illness. The theme of death was then explored in several ways. Prof Marie Cassidy first regaled the room with humorous anecdotes from her career as State Forensic Pathologist, whereupon psychiatrist Dr Steven Schlozman spoke about the neuropsychiatry of zombies. Finally, Dr Kathryn Mannix, consultant in palliative medicine, invited us to tackle the issue of death more openly with our patients and their families. 

In the end, dotMD was medicine for the soul. Diverse, compelling, humorous and moving, it included an exhibition of Graphic Medicine curated by Dr Ian Williams, author of the graphic novel, The Bad Doctor, and several moving music performances. I have been to many, many medical conferences; this was the best so far. I will certainly go again next year (see www.dotMD.ie)