Letter from the Editors

Dear lovely readers,

Welcome to our Love issue. We are so thrilled that you have decided to pick up a copy of the QMR and give it a read. We are very proud of the content that our entire team (writers, editors, layout, and artists) have brought forward to this issue.

For this issue, we challenged the Queen’s Medicine community to interpret the theme of Love (in medicine) in various ways. Given the dynamic spread of talent in the QMed community, it should come as no surprise that the results were wide-ranging.

In The Importance of Love and Human Connection in Medicine, Karthik Manickavachagam speaks to the human element of medicine and explains how we can facilitate more meaningful interactions in the hospital setting. Meanwhile, Andriy Katyukha presents the argument that while Electronic Patient Records might make things more efficient in the hospital, they can also serve to create barriers between patients and care providers in Patient Centered Care? In Humanity, Love, and Medicine, Iku Nowsu encourages us to challenge constructs about how we express and speak about “love” in medicine. We also are offered insight into the experience that two students shared with their First Patient in a deeply touching article about “Stanley”. In addition to reflections on love, we also offer up conversations about the heart as its own entity. Emma Spence takes a literal look at what it might mean to suffer from a broken heart in Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy/Broken Heart Syndrome while A Case for Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve explores what it means to bring your heart to the forefront in a metaphorical sense. Alex Morra also renders a beautiful poem, Patent Foramen Ovale, which speaks to what it means to have a heart that is open. This issue is ripe with deep and meditative insights on love in medicine, and we also offer up some light and fun fare. We have another thematic crossword for you, with a prize for the person who completes it first (contact [email protected])! Additionally, Christine Moon has curated a number of helpful Mnemonics We Love to aid with memorization during the dreaded second semester slump. If you have been feeling introspective, you can check out the Specialty Love Map, created by Jessica Nguyen, which might guide you toward your career soul mate, or you could also check our your Love Horoscope, if you are wondering about compatibility with a real life mate. Once again, we are so excited to share another round of Dear QMR, wherein anonymous upper-year students answer questions submitted by members of the QMed community. We are so thankful for the contributions from all of you. We hope that this column is both fun, powerful, and emotional all-at-once!

A special acknowledgment goes out to our hard-working managing editors, Grace Yin and Christine Moon, who have been pulling strings behind the scenes for the past couple of months, our content editors, Zoe Hu, Jessica Nguyen, and Sarenna Lalani for making sure we have all crossed our t’s and dotted our i’s (and also for making us all sound better), and to our phenomenal artistry and layout team: Amanda Mills, Doan-Nghi Dam-Le, Jessica Nguyen and Andrew Lee who have done a stellar job making the QMR look lovely. A special shout-out goes to Simran Sandhu for her amazing collage piece that is featured as the cover of this issue!

Whatever it is you seek out - we hope there is something for you in this issue. We thank you for taking the time to support our creative endeavor, and to all of those who have contributed in their many ways. It takes a village, and we happen to reside in the best one out there. 

Nicole Krysa & Kimberley Yuen​