I am honing my storytelling craft after thirty years as an emergency physician, mother, and observer of the human condition. I will be creating new entries and pulling in some of my published works. Thanks for coming along.

After Emergency Medicine…

Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/25/21 Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/25/21

#18 How I Became the Christmas Doctor

It was just a good deed that I did every year. I became the Christmas Doctor.

Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/21/21 Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/21/21

#17 Have Doctors Stopped Listening? A Book Review

I review Dr. Lisa Sanders’ book: Every Patient Tells a Story. She is an accomplished storyteller and academic. The decline and fall of the history and physical are illustrated through various “mysterious case studies”

Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/14/21 Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/14/21

#16 How Becoming a Mother Made me a Better Doctor

I never thought twice about giving children their medications until my own son got ill. This mother’s lesson taught me a thing or two.

Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/6/21 Dr. Joan Naidorf 12/6/21

#15 Reading a Classic

Baby Lia had seizures. Lia’s physicians could not release the culture and biases of Western medicine and Lia’s parents could not or would not compromise the belief system of the Hmong people. Anne Fadiman tells the story of truly good-hearted people from all sides who did everything they could to save Lia in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.