About The Hippocratic Review
Medicine is the most distinguished of all the arts, but through the ignorance of those who practice it, and of those who casually judge such practitioners, it is now of all the arts by far the least esteemed…Many are physicians by repute, very few are such in reality
I am pleased to introduce The Hippocratic Review, a new journal advancing the theory and practice of good medicine. As the official publication of The Hippocratic Society, we are the scholarly hub for the community of medical students and practitioners together seeking to live up to our healing profession. This journal will enrich the society’s work in moral formation, cultivating practical and clinical wisdom, and, perhaps most of all, embracing medicine as “the most distinguished of all the arts,” telling, re-telling, and digesting the stories that make good physicians. The journal will also expand the society’s activity beyond its current boundaries within defined chapters, and we invite readers and authors within as well as without The Hippocratic Society to participate.
By now it is common – and at times trivialized – to point out how the progression of medical knowledge and technical capabilities has the paradoxical effect of inducing ignorance in those who practice it. Unlike Hippocrates’ time, this is not ignorance of the facts of nature. These lie in endless supply, available at a few keystrokes into a generative AI chatbot. Today, this is ignorance of wisdom, and it is one of the central pathologies of our esteemed profession today. Wisdom once made medicine the most distinguished of all the arts, wisdom culled from careful attention to the body under supervision of a master, wisdom in harmony with what it means to be human, wisdom directing knowledge practically to bring about health and relieve suffering. This is the high bar for physicians as attendants to nature – physis, as the Greeks called it. Medicine’s nobility stems from its disciplined commitment to its ends, ends that are universal in scope and unmatched in human need amongst the arts (technai).
And what have we lost in trading wisdom for information? Medicine as a moral practice has been whittled into a technical practice, technicalities embroiling the profession in bureaucracy and burnout. In response, John Rhee, president and co-founder of The Hippocratic Society, envisioned starting a publication to deepen and enhance the society’s work. Far from pedantic moralizing, this journal will feature essays, poetry, creative writing, personal narrative, reviews, and more that celebrate medicine in relation with the good while honestly identifying its obstacles. We invite physicians, philosophers, students, and others to contribute to this new, refereed journal published open access online, protecting authors’ work with non-commercial licensure requiring attribution (CC BY-NC).
The Hippocratic Review is a new endeavor, which means while we have a guiding mission and purpose, its future character will certainly evolve. This journal would not be possible without Michael Egan, executive director of The Hippocratic Society, who is also serving as our managing editor. My sincere thanks, as editor, go out to our editorial board who have already given invaluable input on the journal’s direction in addition to providing open peer-review for every submission. I invite you to explore our website, where you will find the names of our editorial board as well as additional information on what we publish.
Our Team
Ethan Schimoeller, MD, MA
Editor-in-Chief
Ethan Schimmoeller, MD, MA, is a palliative medicine physician at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he also serves on the faculty of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship and as co-chair of the hospital’s clinical ethics committee. He earned his MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a master’s degree in bioethics from The Ohio State University. He completed residency training in family medicine at Memorial Family Medicine Residency in South Bend, Indiana, followed by fellowship training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Riverside Methodist Hospital. His scholarly work explores the intersection of medicine, ethics, spirituality, and human meaning, with particular interests in end-of-life care, medical humanities, and the ethical challenges posed by artificial intelligence in medicine. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Palliative and Supportive Care, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Church Life Journal.
Eve Slater, MD
Section Editor
Eve Elizabeth Slater, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a cardiologist and internist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She previously served as Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw the U.S. Public Health Service, and held senior leadership positions at Merck and Pfizer. She was the first woman to serve as Chief Resident in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and subsequently led its Hypertension Unit. Dr. Slater earned her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and her AB in Chemistry from Vassar College. Her career has spanned clinical medicine, biomedical research, public health, health policy, and pharmaceutical development.
Brian Quaranta, MD, MA
Section Editor
Brian Quaranta, MD, MA, is Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine, Faculty Associate at Duke’s Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine, and Affiliate Faculty in Duke Divinity School’s Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative. His teaching and scholarship explore the intersection of medicine, literature, ethics, and the humanities, with particular interests in Shakespeare, narrative medicine, and mimetic theory. He has taught courses in narrative medicine, literature and medicine, and the humanities and human flourishing, and has developed programs incorporating narrative medicine into clinical education. His scholarly work has appeared in publications addressing medicine, literature, ethics, and medical humanities. He is also a founding member and mentor of the Duke chapter of the Hippocratic Society.
Aaron Rothstein, MD, MSCE
Section Editor
Aaron Rothstein, MD, MSCE, is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a vascular neurologist and neuroepidemiologist specializing in stroke and cerebrovascular disease. He earned his BA in History from Yale University, his MD from Wake Forest School of Medicine, and his master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residency training in internal medicine and neurology at NYU School of Medicine, followed by fellowship training in vascular neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His academic work focuses on stroke, neurovascular disease, epidemiology, and recovery after stroke, with publications in journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Neurology, Stroke, and the Journal of the American Heart Association. Alongside his clinical and scientific work, he writes on the moral, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of medicine and is a fellow in the Bioethics, Technology and Human Flourishing Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is also the host of Searching for Medicine’s Soul.
Brandon Hoa
Section Editor
Brandon Hoa, MD, MA, is a family medicine physician, bioethicist, and researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of medicine, ethics, and human formation. He earned his MD from Thomas Jefferson University, an MA in Theology and Religious Studies with a concentration in ethics from Villanova University, and an AB in Religion from Princeton University. His scholarly interests include addiction medicine, underserved populations, physician formation, community health, and the application of virtue ethics to medical practice. Previously, he directed the Collegium Institute’s theology and medicine seminar program, where he taught theology, ethics, and medicine to students and clinicians. His scholarly work has appeared in Frontiers in Psychiatry, The Linacre Quarterly, BMC Health Services Research, Worship, and OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying. He currently serves in the United States Navy.
Isabella Brown
Section Editor
Isabella “Bella” Brown is a graduate of the University of Dallas, where she majored in English with a Pre-Med concentration and served in leadership of the university’s Hippocratic Society chapter. She is currently pursuing an MS in Narrative Medicine at the University of Southern California, exploring the relationship between literature, narrative, and medical practice. Her academic interests include twentieth-century literature and poetry, particularly the work of Elizabeth Bishop and Jane Kenyon, as well as the intersection of literature and medicine. Her work has included research on Jane Kenyon’s portrayal of illness and the patient perspective, along with research on the use of large language models in chemistry and STEM education. She plans to pursue an MD.
Michael Egan
Managing Editor
Michael Egan is the Managing Editor of The Hippocratic Review. He serves as Executive Director of the Hippocratic Society, where he works with physicians, trainees, and students to advance the Society’s mission of forming clinicians in the practice and pursuit of good medicine. He is a second-year Master of Bioethics student at Harvard Medical School and holds a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland. His academic interests include virtue ethics, medical humanities, moral formation, and narrative medicine. He also serves on the leadership team of the Harvard Hippocratic Society chapter.