Becoming a Better Physician

Mark Allan Goldstein, M.D.  Founding Chief Emeritus, Division of Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School Dr. Goldstein practiced pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and family medicine for over 45 years in settings that included a rural health clinic adjacent to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and academic medical centers in Boston, Massachusetts. He has taught countless medical students, residents, and fellows over his career. Dr. Goldstein’s papers have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the Journal of Adolescent Health, Academic Psychiatry, and other publications. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 18 books for professional or general audiences.  Kathy May Tran, M.D. Hospitalist, Massachusetts General Hospital Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School Associate Editor, Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Tran is a Vietnamese American from the Deep South who serves patients and teaches trainees in the city of Boston, Massachusetts and indigenous nations in Rosebud, South Dakota and Kotzebue, Alaska. She prioritizes workforce well-being by leading programs for community building, music and medicine, diversity and equity, and storytelling—personal, professional, and academic. In addition to writing and editing the historic Case Records in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Tran is the co-editor of 50 Studies Every Hospitalist Should Know (Oxford University Press) and the founder and director of the storytelling series Stories of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

• 1. Learning and Training.- 2. Career.- 3. Caregiving.- 4. Physician as Patient.- 5. Personal Growth.- 6. Love and Loss.

“The book brings together essays from attending physicians, residents, medical students, and retired clinicians. Each contributor offers an honest account of a personal or professional challenge and reflects on how that experience shaped them, not only as clinicians, but as human beings practicing medicine. … Becoming a Better Physician invites readers to move through medicine as it is actually lived. Layered, nonlinear, and shaped as much by experience as by expertise.” (Andres F. Diaz, The New Physician, thenewphysician.org, January 20, 2026) “Becoming a Better Physician: Insightful and Inspirational Stories from Attending Physicians, Residents, and Medical Students ... grew out of a call for essays on how physicians have responded to overwhelming personal and professional challenges. This book, whose intended audience is ‘doctors and those interested in doctoring,’ shares how specific challenges and experiences made each writer a ‘better physician.’ ... Each section begins with an essay, poem or cartoon called a 'Commentary,' followed by five to eight two- to three-page stories.” (Bruce H. Campbell, Intima - A Journal of Narrative Medicine, theintima.org, February 23, 2025) “The volume carries a polyphonic quality. With 45 essays, variation in quality is ineluctable, yet the editors have succeeded in maintaining a solid baseline of quality. … Due to its literary quality and restrained use of jargon, this book is accessible to a broad audience. It will be of particular interest to struggling health care professionals and to readers curious about the nontechnical, human side of medicine.” (Lucas Magalhães Moreira, Family Medicine, June 13, 2025)