From the Editor

Iyesatta Massaquoi Emeli, MD, MPH, FACEP

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening!

I am truly honored to be your new newsletter editor. I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I am an emergency physician and have practiced at Emory University in Atlanta for over the past decade and half. Time does indeed fly. I am also a short story writer. I grew up in Sierra Leone and much of my work reflects that. My stories and essays can be found in the New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe, Eclectica Magazine, Journal of the American Medical Association and there are some more pieces in the pipeline.

To begin, I humbly borrow the words of Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran:

“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?”

In the ACEP Section of the Medical Humanities, beautiful work has been done, beautiful work continues to be done. We have not stood silent.

We begin with a message from our new section Chair, Kamna Balhara, MD, MA, FACEP.

We celebrate the winners of our Writing Award: The Prose & Poetry divisions, as well as the Visual Arts Award winner.

This year’s winner of the Visual Arts Award was “Grieving our Loss/Covid Self-Portrait” by Kelley Hails, MD. We salute all our entries; all were bold and purposeful.

This year’s Writing Award/Prose went to Diane Birnbaumer, MD, FACEP, for “The Eye of the Storm.”

The winner of the 2023 Writing Award/Poetry was Nate Gentry, MD, for “Carcinoma.”

We also include the minutes from the annual section meeting this year in Philadelphia.

I would like to end with a request. Please send me your thoughts and share content for our newsletter. If you have a piece published elsewhere, share it here as well. Let us keep making music and art and prose at the intersection of medicine and the humanities.

Merry Christmas, Marvelous New Year and a Magical Holiday season to all!