"Narratives have always been a vital part of medicine. Stories about patients, the experience of caring for them, and their recovery from illness have always been shared-among physicians as well as among patients and their relatives. With the evolution of "modern" medicine, narratives were increasingly neglected in favor of "facts and findings," which were regarded as more scientific and objective. Now, in recent years medical narrative is changing-from the stories about patients and their illnesses, patient narratives and the unfolding and interwoven story between health care professionals and patients are both gaining momentum, leading to the creation or defining of narrative-based medicine (NBM). The term was coined deliberately to mark its distinction from evidence-based medicine (EBM); in fact, NBM was propagated to counteract the shortcomings of EBM.1,2 But what is NBM? Is it a specific therapeutic tool, a special form of physician-patient communication, a qualitative research tool, or does it simply signify a particular attitude towards patients and doctoring? It can be all of the above with different forms or genres of narrative or practical approach called for depending on the field of application. "
Background
The term Web 2.0 became popular following the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004; however, there are difficulties in its application to health and medicine. Principally, the definition published by O'Reilly is criticized for being too am
Glenn Regehr and Maria Mylopoulos Many of the assumptions about the "adult, self-directed learner" that form the basis of the current model of formal continuing education delivery are largely unsupported by the literature. Yet most practitioners maintain
