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| Dr Mariam Tokhi | Dr Fiona Reilly |
Speaker Details: A Taste of Narrative Medicine
Dr Mariam Tokhi leads the Narrative Medicine teaching of medical students in the Discovery programme at the University of Melbourne. She is a GP working in refugee health in Melbourne’s West. She has spent the past decade working in, thinking and writing about community health. How do we provide good, accessible care for those who need it the most? How do we engage with the stories of our patients? How do we give clinicians skills in storytelling for advocacy, reflection, leadership and wellbeing?
Mariam completed her medical degree at Monash University, a Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and completed certification in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. She often writes, reflects and advocates about primary care in the ‘deep end’, intersectional feminism and vulnerable communities, including for the Guardian Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and others. Mariam loves seeing medical students, health workers and educators ask creative questions, dream outside the traditional bio-medical boxes, and engage with the beauty and challenges of caring, medicine, and life.
Dr Fiona Reilly is a traveller, writer and senior paediatric emergency physician. Of these three, she usually puts “doctor” on visa applications to avoid trouble and awkward questions. She has spent her life journeying across cultures, languages and cuisines, trying to figure out what makes us tick as humans. She sees the emergency department as a microcosm of the wider world, with all its wonderful contradictions and challenges.
Fiona is an Emergency Physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and collaborator in paediatric emergency medicine initiatives in China and Pakistan. She has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Non-fiction and Narrative Medicine, working on a collection of essays about her work in paediatric emergency medicine. She studied Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, and is an active Narrative Medicine practitioner and teacher. Fiona teaches in the MD2 Discovery Narrative Medicine course at the University of Melbourne. Fiona is passionate about bringing out the creativity, compassion, curiosity and humour in her students, to help them be the best humans possible.