Writing the Other: An Exercise in Empathy

From the first days of medical school, students are socialized into the medical environment. They are trained to view patients as the “other.” The medical humanities have been introduced into the curriculum of most medical schools as a means to counteract the possible effects of this “othering.” In particular, writing exercises have been adopted to help students understand the perspectives of their patients and to consider their own responses to experiences during medical training. A writing seminar was offered to first and second year medical students that employed imaginative writing, specifically point of view narratives. Each week the students considered different perspectives of many individuals involved in patient care and then wrote stories from these perspectives. Students shared and discussed these stories. The students’ feedback indicated that these exercises helped them to empathize with the subjects of their stories and to feel more connected to other members of the class

Writing the Other: An Exercise in Empathy

From the first days of medical school, students are socialized into the medical environment. They are trained to view patients as the “other.” The medical humanities have been introduced into the curriculum of most medical schools as a means to counteract the possible effects of this “othering.” In particular, writing exercises have been adopted to help students understand the perspectives of their patients and to consider their own responses to experiences during medical training. A writing seminar was offered to first and second year medical students that employed imaginative writing, specifically point of view narratives. Each week the students considered different perspectives of many individuals involved in patient care and then wrote stories from these perspectives. Students shared and discussed these stories. The students’ feedback indicated that these exercises helped them to empathize with the subjects of their stories and to feel more connected to other members of the class

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020