Healthcare is ultimately a team effort. The hospital functions as an unit composed of hundreds and thousands of individuals. From students to nurses, and doctors to social workers, a patient’s care never truly lies in the hands of one person, but that of many.

In this issue, we present the writings and artwork of individuals across the medical campus, from medical and physician assistant students, to doctors, social workers, and advocates. We are proud of the diversity of the effort that it took to make this issue, and we hope that it will only continue to grow as we mature as a publication.

To begin, we remind ourselves of the wonder of medicine amidst the routine of daily life with a poem by Rachel Ballantyne titled merely as the date of its creation. Then we transition to the wonder of modern science as it changes and inspires our lives in Josh Davidoff’s poem on his personal experience with deafness.

Afterwards, we delve into advocacy as we emphasize the momentousness of seemingly insignificant daily events, with Dr. Neelon’s ekphrasis of the neglected fall of Icarus in Breughel’s
Icarus. Healthcare doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is part of a complex microcosm that includes politics and advocates. We have to be constantly aware of that as Jerry Lee and Hussain Lalani deliberate on the 2016 presidential election, and Marissa Happ and Joanne Zeis reflect on their experiences as advocates for healthcare issues.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we have working to put it together. And as always, if you have any interest in writing for or joining the Voices editorial team, please let us know at

dukemedvoices@gmail.com.

Your co-Editors-in-Chiefs,

Rui Dai
Vinayak Venkataraman