News
Hektoen International has announced Dr. Fergus Shanahan as the grand prix winner of the Hektoen Grand Prix Essay Competition. Hektoen International is a free, online medical humanities journal at the Hektoen Institute of Medicine accutane in Chicago, IL, USA. The essay contest aimed to further increase the diversity of articles and perspectives represented in the journal.
Entrants were asked to submit an essay of 1,000 to 2,500 words on a subject related to medicine and culture. Two prizes were awarded: the Hektoen Grand Prix, with an award of $1,000, for the winner; and the Silver Prize, with an award of $800, for the runner-up. Hektoen International plans to feature the winning essays in the summer issue of the journal, scheduled to be published in July 2013.
The Grand Prix winner was Fergus Shanahan, the author of Waiting. Dr. Shanahan is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, University College Cork, National University of Ireland, and Director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre. He has published over 400 scientific articles and several books on mucosal immunology, inflammatory bowel disease, and the microbiota, and several articles relating to the medical humanities. The winner of the Silver Prize was Daisy Fancourt, the author of Medicine Musica. Ms. Fancourt studied music at Christ Church, and received a distinction in her Masters at King’s College, London. She is currently is in the process of pursuing a PhD in psychoneuroimmunology, researching the impact of music on the immune systems of hospital patients.
Irish writer Ben Murnane will also feature in the summer issue with his essay ‘The Patient Writer: Finding Meaning in Illness and Authorship’.
The most recent edition of Hektoen International can be viewed at www.hekint.org and is dedicated larely to cardiology. This edition includes Annie Yeh’s essay ‘Humanism in Medicine’ and Zohaib Ahmad’s ‘The Perfection of Illness’.
The Hektoen Institute of Medicine is a comprehensive not-for-profit institution. Its primary function is to promote learning, education, ethics, and research in order to extend the boundaries of knowledge and improve the care of the sick. For more information, please visit www.hektoen.org.
